Auld Yule; or, Christmas in Scotland – 1858.

[Currie]

From the Dundee Courier, Wednesday, December 22, 1858.

AULD YULE; OR, CHRISTMAS IN SCOTLAND.

IN our part of the country—a lowland county far north—we fix our Christmas according to the Old Style of computing time, viz. on the 6th of January, the English Twelfth-day. The same day is observed in most of the rural districts of Scotland. In the large towns, it is becoming the fashion to observe Christmas on the 25th of December, as in England; but in the country that day is passed over without notice, except, perhaps, by the lairds and gentry, who, having " been south," think it rather a fine thing to affect English customs. It is not, however, the disposition of the Scotch generally to prefer the customs of England, or of any other country, to those which have been endeared to them by the traditions of their own loved land; and in spite of all attempts at innovation, Auld Yule still holds its ground bravely.

The Scotch reviewers, who boasted that the intellectual strength which they brought to the demolition of English bards was sustained simply upon oatmeal, confessed a truth which has a wider and deeper significance than they would, perhaps, have been willing to admit. Oats, which Johnson described with so much unworthy bitterness as "the food of horses in England and of men in Scotland," really play a most important part in all that relates to the social habits and observances of the Scotch. Oatmeal may be said to pervade the social life of Scotland much in the same way that beef pervades that of England, or potatoes that of Ireland. Like beef, too, it comes in as the characteristic fare of Christmas. Oatmeal makes cakes, and bannocks, and brose, and porridge, all the year round; and when Yule comes in his mantle of snow, it makes sowans. With what lively anticipations of delight we used to look forward through weary weeks and weeks to the sowans-drinking on Auld Yule morning! Not that any of us were immoderately fond of sowans, any more than the southerners are of beef; but because the making and the drinking of the beverage at early morn was a grand "ploy," to be followed next day by the assembling of the whole household to the Yule breakfast, and all the doings peculiar to the season. Well do I remember with what anxious solicitude we used to inquire of Eppy (Elspet), the cook, "Hoo the sowans were going on." This would be perhaps a week beforehand, when the sowans had just been steeped in the bowie, which, I may explain, is a cask with one of the ends knocked out. But perhaps I had better explain the sowans as well as the bowie. Well, sowans are made from the husks of the oats. A quantity of these husks, having a considerable portion of meal adhering to them, are placed in a cask with several gallons of water, and are there left for a week or so to ferment. When the liquor begins to froth and become sour, it is ready for use. It is then run off, and boiled until it assumes the consistence of gruel; when it is sweetened with sugar or treacle, and then drank out of bowls, or bickers. There is another kind of sowans, which is made much thicker, and is eaten with milk, like porridge. The "drinking sowans," however, is specially reserved for Yule morning. It is the custom for the cook to wake every body in the house about four or five o'clock, and call them to drink sowans. All the young people dress, and assemble round the kitchen-fire, each with his bicker in hand, waiting to be served. If there be any old or infirm persons in the house, basins of sowans are taken to them in their beds; for every one must taste sowans on Yule morning. It would be considered as much a reproach in Scotland for a person to pass his Yule without drinking sowans, as it is in England for any one not to have a plum-pudding on Christmas Day; and as people in England taste each other's plum-puddings, so in Scotland neighbours exchange "tastes" of their sowans. There is a good deal of rivalry, too, among the sowans-makers; and some Eppy or Jessie will become the talk of the country-side on account of the superiority of her sowans.

In some parts of the Highlands, it is the custom, after the sowans-bickers have been emptied, to rush away to a swing, in which the various members of the family are swung in turn, the youngest having the preference. As the person in the swing approaches the swinger, he calls out, Ei mi tu chal ("I'll eat your kail"); to which the swinger replies, Cha ni u mu chal ("You shan't eat my kail"). This sport passes away the time until daylight, when the players all rush to the door to see what kind of weather Yule has brought. The proverb runs, "A green (or black) Yule makes a fat kirkyard;" meaning, that mild weather at Christmas is not favourable to health. In the northern parts of Scotland, however, it is not often that the earth is seen without a thick robe of snow on Yule morning. I remember, on more than one occasion, going to the door on Yule morning to mark the signs of the weather, and finding the whole side of the house snowed up to the first-floor windows. On one memorable Yule morning, the snow-drift was so dense that we were obliged to use fire-shovels in cutting our way out. The low outhouses, where the cattle and horses were stabled, were completely hid in the huge mountain of drift; and it took the farming men nearly a whole day to dig a passage to the doors through which to carry the poor beasts their food.

In farmhouses, it is the custom on Yule morning for the master to entertain all his servants, together with the members of his own family, to what is termed in the vernacular a "tae brackfast," in contradistinction to the usual matutinal meal of porridge and milk. This meal is greatly enjoyed by the farming men and boys, to whom tea, wheaten bread, and dried haddocks are a rare treat. When the wheaten bread and the haddocks have been demolished, and the tea-pot has been drained of the last drop that can possibly lay any claim to the name of tea, there immediately begins a general reading of fortunes in the tea-grouts left in the cups. The lasses never fail to divine that strangers will arrive during the day; and Jessy the housemaid and Eppy the cook fall into fits of laughter as their fancy is struck by some configuration of tea-grouts resembling a certain Willie or Jamie towards whom they are not unwilling to own that they cherish feelings of a tender nature. The fortune-telling over, a scene occurs something not unlike that which ensued upon Romulus's entertainment to the Sabines; with this difference, that the Sabine lasses were not prepared for it, whereas the Scotch lasses always are. Every lad seizes a lass, and kisses her on the spot without license of mistletoe; nor is any lad content with kissing one lass, but kisses them all round in succession, as fast as he can catch them, and overcome their well-feigned resistance. As the morning advances, the lasses begin to be on the qui vive for the "beggars," the first sound of whose voices singing their Yule songs brings all the inmates scampering to the doors. The "beggars" who visit the farmhouses of Scotland on a Yule morning may be said to correspond to the English "waits," so far as they introduce themselves with songs and music. Here, however, the comparison ends. The Scotch Yule beggars do not seek alms on their own account. They are, in fact, respectable young men belonging to the farmhouses of the neighbourhood, who agree among themselves to go round the country with sacks slung over their shoulders to collect contributions of meal, or money, if they can get it, for some "auld wife" whose scanty means are inadequate to the supply of her humble wants during the rigours of winter. The sons of well-to-do farmers do not think it beneath them to perform this charitable office, particularly as it affords them an opportunity of calling upon and kissing all the bonnie lasses of the neighbourhood. Fine strapping chiels are those beggars, and smartly dressed too; and Eppy, as she drops a handful of meal in their sacks, like the Saxon lef-day, is by no means unwilling to take a good honest kiss in reward of her charity. The song with which the beggars herald their approach is generally a description of the case of the auld wife whose cause they have come to plead. I have a recollection of hearing on a Yule morning something like the following:—

Ye ken auld Tibbie Cruikshank,
That lives doon by the muir;
An honest cra-tur Tibbie is,
But lanesome, auld, and puir.

Then let us beg for Tibbie
A puckle o' your meal,
Or maybe twa or three bawbees,
Or claes will dee as weel."

And then comes a refrain, which is peculiar to many of the northern districts of Scotland, but the meaning of which I have never been able to learn. It recites the various farmhouses which have been visited, and ends with

"And awa' by Soothin toon,"

thus:—

"We've been up by Muiryfauld,
To Seggybum been doon,
And ower to the minister's hoose,
And awa' by Soothin toon."

I may state, however, that the word "toon," or "toun," is generally used to signify a farmhouse and its buildings. Several sets of beggars will visit the house during the morning, and they all get meal or bawbees, and kisses to boot; and they all sing, that in gathering meal for Auld Tibbie, or lizzie, they have been up and down, and here and there,

"And awa' by Soothin toon."

In the country the sports peculiar to Yule are chiefly shooting at a target for prizes; cards (the popular game being "catch the ten"); and amongst the bairns, playing at teetotum for pins. Every Scotch farming-man possesses a gun, in which he takes as much pride as the Swiss mountaineer of a past age took in his bow. He is equally fond of showing his skill in its use at the shooting-matches on Auld-Yule Day. The prizes on these occasions are variously a fat hen, a pig, or, maybe, a silver watch. The match is generally got up in behalf of some poor person, who takes this mode of raffling any little article of property which he may possess.

Dinner is not a feature of Christmas observances in Scotland in the country districts, nor, indeed, to any great extent in the towns. The dinner is better than usual; but there is no distinctive fare, such as roast beef and plum-pudding; and the decoration of houses with evergreens is wholly unknown. In England, we are indebted for these customs to the Church, which originally introduced them as part of the religious observances of the season. In Scotland, however, Christmas is not a festival of the Church. There is no special service, nor, indeed, any service at all, in the churches on Christmas Day; but there is an intimate connection in the minds of the people between the season and the Great Event which it commemorates. Yule in Scotland, like Christmas in England, is a period sacred to good feeling and Christian brotherhood, to the social fore-gathering of families, and the exercise of bountiful charity.

A. H.

Also in the National Magazine, 1858.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ezI ... J&pg=PA198

Alan

[Rockford]

Hi Alan,

Another great find! It's really fascinating and it's interesting to see how the focus was on 6th Jan, rather than 25th Dec 'which passed unobserved' - and the story just shows how much has changed in the time since.

I'm afraid ah've nae sowans tae share, but Happy Christmas!

Best wishes

Brian

[Currie]

Thanks Brian,

And a very Happy Christmas to You and Yours and Everyone else as well.

All the best,
Alan

[Alan SHARP]

Seasons Greetings Alan.

Yet again a reminder that the "mind set and culture" of 150 years ago was so different from today. It's a mistake to view the era we are researching in, by todays standards, what ever they may be. It pays to be informed about the period of our research, and your finds are great in that respect.

With that in mind I searched our "Papers Past" with "Christmas 1858" and though I did not come up with a revealing story about Christmas in NZ at that time, two adjacent items in the COLONIST - 6 May - 1859, I did find very interesting.

#1 The effect of free Trade, reprinted from the SYDNEY HERALD goes into considerable detail about the extremely rapid [1842 - 1850's] increase in trade from the UK to all points of the globe.

#1 The Church of the Future. Prose by the Rev. S. F. MACDONALD of Chester UK, is definitely worthy of a Christmas prayer.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bi ... mas+1858--

(If my attempt at posting a link address is incorrect, hopefully one of the very helpful moderator's will tidy it up for me.)

Good will and seasons greetings to all from NZ.

Alan SHARP

[Currie]

Thanks Alan, and a very Happy Christmas to you and yours.

PapersPast is a great resource and a very useful source of Scottish News. Perhaps because so many Scots migrated to that neck of the woods and news from home was very much in demand.

All the best,
Alan