Hogmanay

While the English went back to work after Christmas, the Scots kept the Daft Days around the New Year, and the last day of the year was Hogmanay. On the morning children of poor families wrapped themselves in a sheet folded into a great pocket and went round the better-off houses crying Hogmanay, and each was given a piece of oatcake, sometimes with cheese. Housewives baked for days beforehand, and the children went home staggering under their loads. Hogmanay is still Scotland’s great night of the year.