52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History.

Week 1: New Year’s. Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?

When I was younger Hogmanay was a time for family and friends. One tradition was the house had to be clean and tidy by midnight the plan being to start the year as you meant to go on so after the fun of Christmas it was a frantic couple of days tidying and organising before 'the bells' at midnight. We always saw in the bells at our own house, you had to have a drink to toast the new year and something to eat to ensure plenty of food for the rest of the year. Then we would visit my grandparents or friends as their first foot. You always took a bottle of something to the house and then it was a couple of hours chatting, sometimes singing, and telling stories, before walking home in the early hours of the morning.