SOME SCOTCH CUSTOMS
OUR little Scotch cousins do not make so much of Christmas as the
American children. Their great holiday is the New Year. On the eve of
"Hogmanay," as it is called, everybody stays up to welcome the New
Year, with great jollification.
"Do you think that Uncle Clarke will get here in time?" Don asked for
the hundredth time on New Year's eve. The Gordons had been expecting
him all the week, but he had not yet come, and Don went about grumbling
that "Hogmanay" would be no fun at all without Uncle Clarke.
The MacPhersons and the Gordons were all sitting in the library of
Kelvin House, to see the old year out and the new year in. A table was
spread with cakes and many other good things to eat, and the children
had been wondering all the evening who would make the "first-footing."
A "first-footing" is made by the first person who enters the house
after the stroke of midnight; and if he wishes well to the household,
he should bring a cake of shortbread with him.
There is always great hilarity at a "first-footing." Everybody kept
their eyes on the clock, and Doctor Gordon pulled out his watch every
little while to be sure that the clock had not stopped.
Just as the stroke of twelve rang out, all the bells of the city began
to ring, and great shouts went up from the throngs of people who
crowded the streets, and there was a great kissing and shaking of hands
among the happy households who had assembled for the ceremony.
In the midst of all the gaiety at Kelvin House the front door-bell
rang. "Oh! there's our 'first-footing,'" shouted the children in one
voice, and they all rushed to the door. Who should it be but Uncle
Clarke, with a big cake of shortbread in his arms!
"I knew he'd come, I knew he'd come," shouted Don, triumphantly,
dragging him into the room. Well, wasn't there a great time! and wasn't
everybody pleased!
After this other friends came in to wish the family a "Happy New Year,"
and then everybody joined hands and sang "Auld Lang Syne," that best
known song of Robert Burns, Scotland's greatest poet.
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
We'll drink a cup of kindness yet,
For the days of Auld Lang Syne."
Another great event for the children of Scotland is to hear a "Royal
Proclamation," which is a message from the king, read out at Mercat
Cross in Edinburgh. It is carried out with great ceremony, and is
another old-time custom which has lived to this day. The heralds come
in their gorgeous costumes, all red and blue and gold, with a military
escort from the Highland Regiment at the castle, and the band plays as
the procession makes its way to the cross.
There is a great fanfare by the trumpeters, after which the king's
message is read out to the people assembled. Then there is another
fanfare blown on the long trumpets, which have gorgeous banners hanging
from them, after which the band plays "God Save the King," and the
people all take off their hats.
One morning a shrill whistle brought Sandy to his garden wall.
"What's up?" he called out.
"Whist!" It was Don who swung himself off an overhanging branch of an
old pear-tree, and dropped down on Sandy's side of the wall.
"There are a lot of the Irish lads behind the churchyard wall; they
didn't see me, so I sneaked around the back way. Our crowd is going to
be at the top of the street, so hurry up," said Don, in a most excited
manner.
"I'm ready," said Sandy, "but we haven't got a bit of blue."
"Here's a ribbon that will do; I saved it off the last box of sweets,"
said Don, with the air of a general planning a campaign, as he took a
bedraggled bit of blue ribbon out of his pocket and hastily cut it in
two with his knife.
Each of the lads tied a piece in his button-hole as they ran out by all
the back alleyways in the direction of the church.
What was it all about? Well, it was St. Patrick's Day, the seventeenth
of March, and when any of the Scotch and Irish lads met on that day,
there was bound to be a battle between them. The Irish boys wore green
ribbons, and the Scotch boys blue ones.
This is one of the many old customs which still go on in some parts,
though probably not many know just why it has survived; and the boys
themselves perhaps never stop to realize that it is an old custom, and
do not care what its origin may have been, so long as it furnishes them
some fun and no serious hurts come of it. On one occasion Don came
home after the fray with a big bump on the side of his head which had
frightened his mother, but at which the doctor laughed, and said a few
knocks like that wouldn't hurt any lad. As for Donald, he gloried in
going around and showing off his injury, his head meanwhile wrapped
in a great poultice. For this he was quite a hero in the eyes of his
playmates.
To-day the Scotch line of battle was preparing to move from its
position when our lads came up panting and breathless. The idea was to
surprise the Irish boys entrenched behind the churchyard wall, who were
guarding themselves only against an attack which they expected to come
from an entirely different direction.
Our little Scotch band crept carefully along, taking advantage of the
shelter of every wall and tree. They had drawn up in the rear of the
enemy, and were just gathering their forces for an onslaught, when a
head popped round the angle of the wall, and out rushed the whole troop
of Irish lads, and the battle begun.
First one crowd was driven down the hill and then the other; and so it
went on until from sheer fatigue both sides drew off, each claiming a
victory; which probably was as good a way of deciding it as any, for
it is very hard to say which are the bravest, the Scotch or the Irish.
Both nations have proved themselves fair fighters in the past.
The next day Sandy and Don were seen playing games with some of the
enemy, so it is seen no hard feelings came from the encounter.
Donald and Sandy always enjoyed the fun of egg-rolling at Easter, which
is much the same kind of sport that children amuse themselves with in
some parts of America, though nobody seems to know just how the custom
originated.
Then the children have "Hallowe'en" parties, when they play many kinds
of queer games. Often there is a cake in which there has been baked a
small china doll, a brass ring, a thimble, a button, and a threepenny
silver piece, each of which means some sort of good or bad fortune
for the one who finds it in his or her piece of cake. But, generally
speaking, the children are most anxious to receive the coin, for that
can be spent, you know.
We must not forget the "haggis," which Donald sometimes ate for dinner.
It is a favourite old-time Scotch dish, a sort of a pudding, made of
various kinds of meat and meal, and put into a bag and boiled a long
time. It is not eaten so much to-day as formerly, but Mrs. Gordon
always made a point of having it on certain special occasions, as a
great treat. As it is very rich, and quite unsuited as a steady diet
for children, perhaps it is just as well that they do not have it too
often.