FIRST FOOTING

Evening Star, Issue 19772, 24 January 1928, Page 14

FIRST FOOTING

SCOTLAND'S ANCIENT CUSTOM Midnight, in a Highland village, on the thirty-first of December! The last clanging note of the church clock vibrates through an otherwise hushed little world; then fades like a sigh (writes W. Harold Thomson, in ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly’). The old year is a memory; the New Year has been born, and with it countless human resolves and valiant or half-pathetic hopes. Presently the men and women who have gathered in the Church square 01 in the main street—and such youngsters as have been allowed to "stay up”—push solemnity aside and give gay greeting to the future and all the good things which surely must hold for them. In a matter of moments the small and scattered groups become one big group. Hearty wishes arc exchanged; hands arc grasped; there is even a kiss or two among shy lovers and those married folk who, blessedly, remain lovers. Then some sturdy soul, still able at this laic hour to trust to the steadiness ol Ids voice, starts to sing ‘ Auld Lang Sync.’ Even before the song is ended there are "impatient units of the crowd who. much in the manner of certain celebrated Arabs, fold their capes or cloaks about them and silently steal away, intent on their great annua! joy—the joy of being the first to step over the threshold of a friend’s house: the first person wdiose foot shall touch the floor of that dwelling:. humble or grand, to which messages of good will have already been mentally wirelessed. "•EARLY MEMORIES.

Despite tho fact that England lias given so generous, so kindly, and, in the best sense, so "spurting” a welcome to the modern Scottish invaders, many Englishmen and Englishwomen arc inclined to he perplexed when one talks about “ First Footing.” They say, “Yes, but what does it mean? What is the point of the thing?” It is, in the Scottish view, a pleasure and an honor to be the first person to enter, when tho New Year is still in its infancy, a house whoso inmates are well liked. When the Scot goes out first-fooling, he does so wrapped snugly about by the spirit of friendship. He is a rollicking gallant then, eager for comradeship; someone who would say, “Give us your hand! All good be with you! Forget aboob yon wee quarrel we had. That’s finished. If there’s still time I’ll first-foot you. Y’ken what that moans.” And the other man does “ken”! I cannot speak with authority, nor even as a scribe, about the first-foot-ing customs in Scotland to-day, for though I have been privileged to visit my native land during each of the years since I became one of the South’s permanent guests, I have spent no recent New Year in tho north. But I retain my memories—for instance, the memory of a night when I was taken with my father to “ first-foot ” a two-milc-distanl neighbor. SNOW ON THE GROUND.

There was snow on tho ground, and snow was falling. By all the usual domestic and paterna I rules I should have been in hod and asleep, bub on that wonderful night I felt as though ] were a man indeed. I think that my father drank whisky, but did so with strict moderation, as was his custom. I know that "I made myself very ill as the result of eating too ranch shortbread and drinking too much ginger wine. To be tho real thing, first-looting .should start immediately after midnight on the last day of tho year, but when 1 was a child and had my home near to a Highland village it was thought proper that the juniors should not take their part in the customs till New Year’s Day was well advanced. Even so, the fun of the tiling had not been spoiled. To ho sure, the ciders had had the best of it, but there still were certain houses whore one might expect to be the first-foot —for one did not consider the postman as having any claim to so glorious » distinction.

Never, L am certain, was the skilled and kindly village doctor so busy among ns small boys and girls—save, of course, during epidemics—as on the second day of January! Wo were allowed to eat as many “goodies” as we pleased; wore encouraged to cat a great deal more than wc could conveniently digest. Shortbread. Christmas bun (a wonderfully “filling” affair, brown and rich and with a light-brown, crust), sweets, fruit—they were waiting for us in each hou.se, and by them wo did our greedy best. Liquid refreshment was as plentiful as solid, and though home-made wines were supposed to tic the strongest tilings permissible, 1 iear that many a small head grow muzzy niter a sip or two of sherry or port. DA UK HAIR LUCKY. As soon as the New Year had drawn and exuded its first, Jong, Jilegiving breath, each good Scot who could do so started out to visit his friends. If ho happened to be darkhaired, so much the better, for the darkness of bis hair brought additional luck to the folk on whom he called. One thing was not merely important but essential —the firstfooter dare not set out empty-handed. It was enough that he should have a bottle of spirits which could be produced and tho contents of which could im shared, but at the least ho must have something in his hand—be it ever so small v >. gilt as a slab ol shortbread or a “ poke o Iswectics lor the bairns.” And if the people at whose home be stopped were a-bed, they bad to leave their beds to give him welcome. Failing to do that, they would miss their “ luck ’’—quite apart from tbo fact that they would ho regarded its poor creatures who preferred hoggish slumber to the revels ot a night o’ nights, IN THE CITIES.

As it is—or was—in the .Highland village, so it is, or was, in the Scottish cities, f have been near to the Tron Church in Edinburgh on New Year’s Evo and seen the same sort ol scenes, and taken part in the same sort of activities as were _ familiar to mo in my home-place in Western ■Perthshire. In the city there was, to be sure, a vastly bigger crowd, and a greater tumult, and liglits were shown from many windows. Rut the spirit or the occasion was the same. The potential first-footers were in no way different from the less sophisticated first-footers of the mountain-circled village. be that to-day first-footing in the north is a very decorous and sober business. I hope not! if it had its flaws, it bad its glories—and n flaw always fades, while a glory is for all time.