Christmas Day in the Highlands

25 December · Scottish Highlands

No longer kept

Grant’s Popular Superstitions of the Highlands described a Highland Christmas. Before dawn the housemaid baked sour scones, bannocks and cakes, then boiled fresh sowans, which were served to the whole family in their beds. Everyone then jumped up, the elders to read the omens of the day and the young to the swing, where swinger and swung bandied a mock quarrel over eating each other’s kail. Prize shooting and the ball game followed, then a feast with haggis, the whisky bowl and dancing or cards.

Flocking to the swing, a favourite amusement on this occasion, the youngest of the family get the first 'shouder,'

From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, cols. 1633-1635. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Ice to bear a goose Lore and belief LincolnshireEllis gave a Lincolnshire saying about the winter's ice.
Wad-shooting at Kirkden No longer kept AngusThe minister of Kirkden in Angus reported in 1792 that Christmas was kept as a great festival in his parish.
Red apples at Ripon No longer kept YorkshireAt Ripon on Christmas Day the singing boys came into the church with large baskets of red apples, each with a sprig of rosemary stuck in it, and gave them to the whole congregation.
Christmas carols in Scilly church No longer kept Isles of ScillyHeath's account of the Isles of Scilly described the islanders singing carols in church on Christmas Day.
Hunting owls and squirrels on Christmas Day No longer kept SuffolkA man brought up in a village not far from Bury St Edmunds told Brand that when he was a boy the youths there had a country custom of hunting owls and squirrels on Christmas Day.
Crying Yule in Yorkshire No longer kept YorkshireBlount wrote that in Yorkshire and other northern parts the people would cry Ule, Ule even in the churches after the Christmas service, as a token of rejoicing, while the common sort ran about the streets singing a rhyme of puddings and nuts.
A male first foot on Christmas morning Lore and belief EnglandEllis recorded a set of Christmas beliefs alongside the vessel-cup carol.
The apple Florentine No longer kept BedfordshireAt Potton in Bedfordshire and the places round about, some sixty years before Hone's Year Book, every Christmas entertainment had an apple Florentine on the table, of which all the guests ate.
The bells under the valley Lore and belief NottinghamshireNear Raleigh in Nottinghamshire, a Hone correspondent wrote, there was a valley said to have been made by an earthquake centuries before, which swallowed a whole village and its church.
Alexander and the King of Egypt No longer kept CumberlandA Whitehaven correspondent sent Hone the printed text of the mummers' play acted there every Christmas by companies of boys.
A Christmas feed for the beasts No longer kept StirlingshireIn former times the charity of Christmas and New Year was extended to the animals.
The Yorkshire gooding carol No longer kept YorkshireOn Christmas morning children in Yorkshire went gooding from house to house, carrying a small Christmas tree as the badge of their errand.
No spinning on Yule Day No longer kept ScotlandIn Scotland there was an old superstition against spinning on Christmas, or Yule Day.
The boar’s head at Queen’s College Still kept OxfordshireThe boar's head was once the first dish of every great Christmas dinner, carried in with minstrelsy and a carol, and Aubrey said that before the civil wars it came to the table in gentlemen's houses with a lemon in its mouth.
Christmas weather lore Lore and belief Devon, England, ScotlandAn old song in the Harleian manuscripts foretold the year by the weekday of Christmas: a Sunday Christmas meant a good winter, a fair summer and peace, while a Saturday one brought storms that killed man and beast, failing crops and dying children.
Christmas pie and plum porridge Still kept EnglandEvery family once made a great Christmas pie, which Misson found stuffed with neats' tongues, chicken, eggs, sugar, raisins, peel and spice, and Brand said that in the north of England goose was always its chief ingredient.
The hackin No longer kept EnglandAn old tract called Round about our Coal Fire described how an English gentleman had all his tenants and neighbours into his hall at daybreak on Christmas morning.
Yule doughs No longer kept County Durham, EnglandBakers once baked a little image of paste at Christmas, called a yule dough or dow, and gave one to each of their customers, just as chandlers gave their customers Christmas candles.
West Country church carols Still kept Cornwall, DevonDavies Gilbert, who published the old carols of the West of England with their tunes, said that on Christmas Day they were sung in place of the psalms in all the churches, above all at the afternoon service, with the whole congregation joining in.
Wrestling for the boar’s head No longer kept EssexAt Hornchurch the lessee of the tithes, which belonged to New College, Oxford, provided a boar's head, dressed and garnished with bay leaves, every Christmas Day.
The Cumnor Christmas feast No longer kept BerkshireAfter evening service on Christmas Day the tithe-paying parishioners of Cumnor went to the vicarage to be given bread, cheese and ale.
The Glastonbury Thorn Still kept SomersetGlastonbury tradition said Joseph of Arimathea stuck his hawthorn staff into Wearyall Hill, where it grew and blossomed every Christmas Day.

Christmas Day in the Highlands

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