Happy New Year!



As we prepare to ring in 2015, I thought it would be appropriate to have an old-fashioned Hogmanay celebration, as they might have celebrated it on Fraser's Ridge two hundred years ago.



This picture shows a cabin built around 1820 near Grandfather Mountain, NC (very close to where Fraser's Ridge is supposed to be located). I think this might look something like Bree and Roger's cabin, perhaps?
A firstfoot was to bring gifts to the house: an egg, a faggot of wood, a bit of salt--and a bit of whisky, thus insuring that the household would not lack for the necessities during the coming year.

(From THE FIERY CROSS by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 35, "Hogmanay". Copyright© 2001 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
I can't participate in a first-footing myself, even if I lived in Scotland (redheads being considered extremely bad luck on such an occasion), but I'd like to share these small tokens with you anyway.






Here's an article I found about Hogmanay Traditions in Scotland.  From what I can tell, the Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburghare an even bigger deal than New Year's Eve in New York's Times Square!

Happy New Year, and best wishes to all of you in 2015!

3 comments

April Steele said...

Happy hogmanay, Karen! Have a wonderful 2015!!!! I can't first foot you...but I'll first comment you! <3

Bridgette S. Walker said...

My Grandmother did not abide that Red Heads were bad luck. My Daddy had red hair and she requested him to be her first foot every year because he had good character and she said that made him good luck. I am from South Carolina and other people from the area give me the oddest looks when I speak of this tradition. Happy New Year to you!

Unknown said...

It's downright eerie that the cabin looks exactly like I pictured it also!

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