Happy New Year!

Bliadhna mhath ùr airson 2012 - Happy New Year all for 2012.

I've had an enquiry from a reader in the US who wanted a definition for both Ne'erday and first-foot, as referred to in a previous post from the British Newspaper Archive. Ne'erday is a Scots word referring to New Year's Day, whilst first footing is a Scottish, Manx and northern English New Year's Day tradition - once the bells have gone at midnight, a resident of the house, who was not in the house when midnight struck, enters the house to bring good luck for the next year. Usually it has to be a tall, dark-haired male, and he is supposed to bring a gift also, such as a lump of coal or a bottle of whisky. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-Foot there is a similar tradition in Greece.

My father's family were Scots, and in Northern Ireland as a kid I remember my father asking me to take a lump of coal up to my gran's house in the estate on which I lived, to first-foot her house for the new year. I had no idea at that stage as to what it was all about, and so I thought my poor gran had run out of coal - I thereby took a small bag of it up to her!

You live and learn...

Chris