Background on Hogmanay In Scotland
36 days agoWhile New Year’s Eve is celebrated around the world the Scots have a long rich heritage associated with the event and even have their own word for it – Hogmanay. Theories...
While New Year’s Eve is celebrated around the world the Scots have a long rich heritage associated with the event and even have their own word for it – Hogmanay. Theories abound about the derivation of the word ‘Hogmanay’. The Scandinavian word for the feast preceding Yule was ‘Hoggonott’, while the Flemish words – many of which came into the Scots language – ‘hoog min dag’ means ‘great love day.’ Hogmanay could also be traced back to the Anglo Saxon ‘Haleg monath’, holy month, or the Gaelic ‘òg maiden’, which refers to ‘new morning. But the most likely source seems to be the French ‘Homme est ne’, translated ‘Man is born.’ In France the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged was called ‘aguilleneuf’, while in Normandy presents given at that time were known as ‘hoguignetes.’
In Scotland a similar practice to that in Normandy was rather disapprovingly recorded by the Church in the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence of 1693 thus: It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland to go about from door to door on New Year’s Eve crying Hagmane.’ Some historians believe that we inherited the word from the Vikings who, coming from even further north than ourselves, paid much more attention to the passing of the shortest day. In Shetland, where the Viking influence is at its strongest, New Year is called Yules and taken from the Norse language. Continue reading…..
Reindeer were re-introduced to Scotland in the Cairngorm Mountains in 1952 by a Swedish Sámi by the name of Michal Utsi. The Cairngorm Reindeer are the UK’s only free-ranging herd, and they roam the slopes of some of Scotland’s highest peaks, feeding on the only sub-arctic territory in the UK. As a herder it was my job to ‘roam’ out and locate them throughout the year. These reindeer are still managed today in much the same way as they were when Mr Utsi brought them here. They spend almost their entire life on the mountains with minimal fuss needed from the herders.
A few weeks ago I found a blog, 



