Dec 31 2009
Celebrating the Celtic New Year
 Pic: (A3R) angelrravelor (A3R) |
In Great Britain nowadays most people celebrate by popping the cork of a bottle of champagne and toasting for luck during the coming year. There is much kissing and arms are linked and ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is sung. But what are the folk customs that were celebrated going back into the mists of time. These customs and rituals could give us some clues as to how the New Year was actually celebrated. According to the Gregorian calendar, the start of each New Year in Great Britain is on January 1st. January 1st was officially designated as New Year’s Day in 1752. Other cultures and traditions celebrate New Year on a completely different day. |
For example, in the Eastern Orthodox Church they celebrate New Year on 14th January, which is the 1st January in the Julian calendar. Samhain as it means the summers end is the Celtic festival of greeting the new time. Samhain is basically the occasion of celebrating the summers end and the time to welcome the winter season. As per the Celtic beliefs it is the time when God comes near to earth and is therefore the New Year time to start afresh. November 1st is the Samhain day and has been traditionally known as the Irish (Celtic) New Year.
The Irish New Year & Samhain
The Irish New Year festival is known as Samhain which meant summer ends and was celebrated on 31 October. The festival has survived as Halloween.
It was at this time they hold their General Assembly. This was held in the out in the air parliament where the laws were renewed and accounts of events, details of births, deaths and marriages, were recorded.
This day was considered of great danger for it was when the spirits of the dead returned to earth. It was believed the spirits could do harm unless precautions were taken. The Celtic priests go into the woods on New Year’s Eve to gather bunches of mistletoe which they handed out to people to protect them from any harm. Also bonfires were lit to drive away evil forces. They also believed that it was safer to stay indoors as fairies were abroad on New Year’s Eve.
In Ireland the girls would go to bed with sprigs of mistletoe, or holly and ivy leaves under their pillows so they would go to bed dreaming of their future husbands.
Hogmany & First Footing
Up until the 1960’s, Hogmanay was a more important festival in Scotland than Christmas. On the day of Hogmanay, 31st December, traditionally the house would be cleaned throughout so that the New Year would be welcomed into a pristine, tidy home. It is regarded as very bad luck to welcome the New Year into a dirty and untidy house! Fireplaces would be swept out and scoured, and some families would read the ashes of the last fire of the year, to see what the New Year had in store for them. The act of cleaning the house for New Year was known as the ‘Redding’.
The first stroke of the bells ringing in the New Year at midnight was known as The Bells, and this would hopefully bring the first of many ‘First Footers’ to visit the house. The back door of the house would be opened to let the Old Year out. It is believed that the first male visitor to a home on New Year’s Day brings good luck. Preferably the male visitor would be a young, handsome, dark-haired, healthy male. The male visitor was supposed to bring gifts of money, bread or cake, coal or salt as these were considered lucky. The bread and cake was to ensure that the household did not go hungry during the coming year, the coal was to ensure that the house would be warm throughout the year and the salt was said to bestow wealth, as salt used to be a rare and precious commodity. A blond or red-headed man or a woman visiting the house first was a big no-no and was considered to bring bad luck. This is because a dark-haired man in ancient times would have been regarded as a fellow Scotsman, and therefore to be deemed safe, whereas a fair haired or red headed man could have been a Viking and therefore potentially a dangerous enemy.
Welsh New Year Carnival
Like all the other European countries New Year brings the joy of welcoming a whole new time in Wales. The typical European culture clubbed with traditional beliefs and rituals make their presence felt in the matchless aura of Welsh New Year carnival. New Year in Wales is definitely the time to greet the forthcoming year and according to the deep traditional beliefs of the country New Year signifies the new life and optimism or a better morrow.
Feasting and amusement lace the Welsh New Year which is the time of suspending the farm works. Welsh New Year therefore symbolizes the more crop production in the coming year and this symbolization is further complemented with an age old tradition of placing a plough under the dining table of the house to signify the advent of winter and the suspension of farm works.
Welsh New Year begins with a festive mood and apart from refined dinner and amusement football matches, rabbit and squirrel hunting and with other flamboyant activities Wales greets the first day of the year with immense passion and romance.
Little Christmas on the Isle of Man
This was often called Little Christmas. Fiddlers would go from house to house to rouse the occupants with music, and their wives would follow the next day for payment, usually food or drink. The English tune ‘The Hunt is Up’ was a favourite.
Celebrating the New Year in the UK
People in Scotland still go ‘First Footing’ and go around visiting all the houses in the neighbourhood. They probably take a bottle of whisky with them to offer neighbours a New Year dram. In less prosperous times, the bottle would be stored on the mantelpiece and only opened on the stroke of midnight. In the older times the villagers would drink something called a Het Pint. The Het Pint is a mixture of ale mulled with nutmeg and whisky. This fragrant, warm brew would be served from a copper kettle to any ‘first footer’ encountered during the celebrations.
New Year in Great Britain is also a time to make New Year Resolutions. A New Year Resolution is a commitment to change a habit or engage in a healthier lifestyle. Typical New Year Resolution’s include giving up smoking, losing weight, vowing to get fitter or saving money. However, many of these resolutions, made in a flush of alcohol and partying, are not kept for very long and are apt to be repeated year after year!
So whether you go to London for the fireworks display on New Year’s Eve and then watch the parade on New Year’s Day or you are going from home to home with your bottle of whisky in a small Scottish home, you will find many different ways of bringing in the New Year in and around Great Britain – the Celtic Lands.
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