“Sober-minded, devout, and reflective people usually like to mark the transition from one year to the next by prayer and consecration…others of a less serious type of mind…watch the hands of the clock steal round to the midnight hour, hear the bells ring out the old; ring in the new, wish each other 'a happy new year,' and commence first footing in earnest. Others, again, sober, sedate citizens, retire to rest at their usual time, and sleep the old year out and the new one in.”1
How do you celebrate the New Year? Do you recognise yourself in the descriptions above? Or do you adopt more modern “traditions”, perhaps watching Jool’s Hootenanny, followed by New Year fireworks?
One longstanding custom mentioned in the article above is first footing. So what is first footing – have you heard of it? Here’s my Dad’s recollection of first footing in 1960’s Teeside:
“It’s a northern, Scottish thing. I did it a few times with a piece of coal in my pocket. First foot into the house after midnight bringing in the luck. The one first footing had to leave the house before midnight to be able to enter after midnight. Meant to be male and dark haired. [My Dad is fair haired] Maybe the coal made up for it. The North East [of England] was full of coal mines then, and the steel works which were coal fed. Coal was seen as luck. When I first foot Mam would kiss me on the cheek and have a glass of wine and some cheese for me. The first footer had to be made welcome. Wouldn’t get the luck otherwise. The first footers would all gather at a local focal point in the town, for us it was the Five Lamps [Thornaby on Tees]. Twelve ‘o’ clock would come we would sing and shake hands with everyone. Get home about 25 past. Nobody would be allowed past the doorstep until the first footer had entered.”
One Edinburgh resident describes her memories of First Footing:
“Our Dad would slip downstairs a few minutes before twelve, taking with him a bottle of whisky, a piece of black bun, then lift a piece of coal from the coal box in the garden and ring our door bell as midnight chimed. Dad was always our first foot!”2
How did first footing begin? In common with many customs associated with Christmas and New Year, the origins of first footing are hard to pin down. In Scotland, a first footer should be male and dark-haired, “believed to be a throwback to the Viking days, when a big blonde stranger arriving on your door step with a big axe meant big trouble.”3
There is no agreement about what he should bring, although a bottle of whisky, black bun (traditional fruit cake covered in pastry), coal and sometimes salt seem to be traditional in Scotland. “Without a word the first-footer walks to the fire and places the coal on it, then pours a drink form his bottle and hands it to his host. ‘A guid new year to ane an a’” is the most common toast as the head of the house drains his glass."4
Although now associated with Scotland and the north of England, there are several accounts of first footing throughout England and as far south of Cornwall. In some reports, first footing takes place on Christmas Eve in order to 'bring in Christmas'. After the Reformation, Christmas – considered both pagan and Catholic - was effectively banned in Scotland by the presbyterian national church. Many Christmas traditions – perhaps including first footing - were moved to Hogmanay on 31 December.
By the 19th century, many Scottish newspapers declared - or perhaps hoped? - that the old custom of first footing was dying out. In 1893, several newspapers quoted from a letter distributed by the Dundee Free Presbytery churches. The letter described Scottish New Year practices as pagan, and urged readers “to be courageous enough to break through this pernicious custom [of first footing], and so do your part as Christian men and women to get rid of one of the foulest blots which dishonour our national life.”5
So has first footing died out? Perhaps, although one supermarket in Scotland is now attempting to revive the tradition – offering a free lump of coal to would-be first footers, and selling first foot gifts of whisky, shortbread, pie and Dundee cake.
So have you taken part in first footing? Do you plan to do it in the future? However you celebrate, I wish “a guid new year to ane an a’!”
(If you have any stories of first footing, I would be delighted to hear them.)
Citations
1 Daily Gazette for Middlesborough. 1895. 2 Jan p. 2, Collection: British Newspaper Archive. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers)
2 Eleanor Dzivane quoted in “AbbeyHill Recollections”, EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_edin/1_edinburgh_history_-_recollections_abbeyhill.htm#07_eleanor_dzivane
3 Johnson, Ben, “The History of Hogmany”, HistoricUK, https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-History-of-Hogmanay/
4 Douglas, Hugh. The Hogmany Companion, Glasgow: Neil Wilson, 1999, p. 28-9, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/hogmanaycompanio0000doug/page/n7/mode/2up
5 Edinburgh Evening Dispatch. 1893. 25 Dec p. 2, Collection: British Newspaper Archive. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers
Further Reading
Campsie, Alison, "When celebrating Christmas was illegal in Scotland", The Scotsman, 24 Dec 2019, https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/when-celebrating-christmas-was-illegal-in-scotland-1399008
"Christmas in Scotland", Welcome to Christmas Around the World, https://the-north-pole.com/scotland.html
Copeland, Cody, "This is Why Scotland Banned Christmas for 400 Years", Grunge, 16 Dec 2020, https://www.grunge.com/297205/this-is-why-scotland-banned-christmas-for-400-years/
Napier, James, Folk Lore Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century, Paisley: Alex Gardiner, 1879, archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20120716192235/http://manybooks.net/support/n/napierj/napierj15791579215792-8.exp.html
Smith, Kenny, "Stores Aim to Get Scotland First Footing Again", Scottish Field, 29 Dec 2018, https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/stores-aim-to-get-scotland-first-footing-again/