Traditional
Scottish Festivals
A
Calendar of some Traditional Scottish Festivals
JANUARY
1
January
New Year’s Day, or Ne’erday Long-celebrated and increasingly
popular festival. It traditionally involved first footing: visiting
neighbours, family and friends — preferably as soon as possible
after the ‘bells’ at midnight.
Orkney Ba’ Games Old-style, uninhibited football games held
in Kirkwall, Orkney, between the Uppies and the Doonies, depending
what part of the town someone comes from.
First
Monday in January
Handsel Monday Traditionally when handsel (usually a gift of money)
was given to servants by employers.
5/6
January
Auld Yule & Uphalieday Traditional celebrations of Twelfth
Night and the Epiphany.
Celebrations varied around the country, from burning evergreen
leaves to eating special celebration cakes.
11
January
Burning of the Clavie One of the traditional Celtic winter fire
festivals and a throwback to ancient Pictish celebrations;
at Burghead in Moray.
Last
Tuesday in January
Up-helly-Aa Another traditional fire-festival, this time of Norse
origin, celebrating Shetland’s Nordic heritage. Lerwick hosts
masquerades, guising and a full-dress
torchlit procession, culminating in the burning of a Viking galley.
25
January
Burns Night Celebration of the birth of the national bard Robert
Burns. Burns Suppers usually feature haggis with whisky, and recitations
of his poetry.
FEBRUARY
2 February
Candlemas Day Like the Romans, the Celts regarded February as
the start of spring. Candlemas Day was originally a Roman festival,
then the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, celebrated with
pageants and religious plays.
Now it is one of the legal ‘Quarter Days’, when rents
and other duties must be paid. Schoolchildren also traditionally
gave their teachers gifts on this day.
14
February
St Valentine’s Day Celebrated in Scotland as all over Europe.
Traditionally, young unmarried people drew names written on pieces
of paper to see who their sweetheart would be for the coming year.
MARCH
1 March
Whuppity Scoorie A traditional springtime festival said to chase
away evil spirits, it mainly involved running fights between the
young men of Lanark and David Dale’s
New Lanark village.
Tuesday
before Ash Wednesday
Eastern’s E’en Scots Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday,
when all the meat, butter and fat in the house were used up before
the fasting of Lent.
APRIL
1 April
Hunt the Gowk Traditional April Fool’s practical jokes and
pranks were played, usually involving sending someone on a false,
or fool’s errand. A gowk was a cuckoo, a bird associated
with foolery.
2
April
Tailie Day or Preen-tail Day The practical jokes continued as
paper tails were attached to unsuspecting victims.
Easter
An ancient pagan festival of the spring equinox was superceded
by the Christian celebration. The recognisable Easter customs
— painted egg-rolling, making hot-cross buns — were
also celebrated in Scotland; they have now been joined by the
more recent arrivals of chocolate eggs and the Easter Bunny.
MAY
1 May
Beltane Another ancient pagan fire festival, this time celebrating
May Day and the approach of summer. Bonfires were lit on hilltops
all across Scotland.
15
May
Whitsunday This was the second of the Scottish ‘Quarter Days’,
or Term Days. It always falls on the same day, unlike Whit Sunday
(also known as Pentecost), which falls on the seventh Sunday after
Easter.
25
May
Flitting Day Most Scots rented their houses by annual lease, and
this was the day the leases expired.
JUNE
Riding the Marches The traditional Borders riding festivals, dating
from the time when the border needed policing to prevent encroachment.
The festivals start in June and carry on during the summer. Most
Borders towns have their own Highland
Games. These also traditionally begin in June, with many towns
having their events throughout the summer. Scottish Highland Games
normally include piping, traditional dancing, tossing the caber
and throwing the hammer or some other weight.
Mid
June
Guid Nychburris Celebrating the town of Dumfries and intended
to encourage neighbourliness among its inhabitants. The week-long
festival features the crowning of the Queen of the South.
17
June
Lanimer Day Traditional festival held in Lanark sees houses bedecked
in greenery, and a fair in the town centre.
JULY
Last two weeks
Glasgow Fair Most Scots towns have a summer fortnight traditionally
regarded as a local holiday period, but Glasgow’s is the
oldest — dating from the 12th century —and still the
most popular.
AUGUST
1 August
Lammas Third of the ‘Quarter Days’. It marked the start
of autumn and the harvest season, and festivals and fairs were
held across the country. It was also known by the name ‘Loaf
Mass’, recognising the baking of the first of the new grain
into bread.
Early
August
The Burryman Traditional and still observed ceremony in South
Queensferry. The Burryman, a native of the town, is covered in
burrs over his body and head, and is led through the town by attendants.
The procession goes on for several hours. The ceremony apparently
dates back to the 14th century.
Horse
and Boys Ploughing Match At St Margaret’s Hope in South Ronaldsay,
this very old pre-harvest ritual sees elaborately dressed local
youngsters mimicking horses and ploughmen as they ‘plough’
furrows on the beach.
Mid
August
Edinburgh International Festival & Fringe A more recent addition,
the Edinburgh Festival is the high point of the Scots cultural
year and an important event on the international arts calendar.
It has been running for over 50 years. The theatre, music, dance,
revues, talks and exhibitions of the Festival and Fringe have
been supplemented by the Television, Book and Film Festivals in
recent years.
15 August
Marymas Bannocks were baked and eaten in honour of the Virgin
Mary.
SEPTEMBER
First Saturday in September.
Braemar Gathering Reputedly dating back to the 11th century, it
was Queen Victoria who ensured the success of the highland games
at Braemar by her attendance at them in 1848. The Royal family
has been a feature of them ever since.
29
September
Michaelmas As patron saint of the sea and sailors, the feast of
St Michael was enthusiastically celebrated, particularly in the
west of Scotland. Several harvest celebrations coincided with
St Michael’s Day, often involving the baking of cakes made
from newly harvested cereals.
OCTOBER
18 October
St Luke’s Day or Sour Cakes Day A celebration linked to the
Royal Burgh of Rutherglen, where cakes were baked and eaten with
sour cream.
31
October
Hallowe’en The evening of All Hallows’ (or All Saints’)
Day and the last day of the year in the old Celtic calendar. Hallowe’en
was an early Christian festival grafted onto the Celtic festival
of Samhain, which was both a feast of thanksgiving and of the
dead. It is a night when ghosts, witches and all manner of evils
are abroad and many of the Celtic rites associated with the day
evolved into the trappings of Hallowe’en, particularly ‘guising’
where children dressed up and went round neighbouring houses
with ‘tattie bogies’ or ‘neep lanterns’ (candles
inside hollowed-out turnips with ferocious carved faces). The
old traditions of Hallowe’en in Scotland have been swamped
recently by the growth of the more sanitised and commercialised
customs of the Americans’ ‘trick-or-treat’.
NOVEMBER
5
November
Guy Fawkes Night Commemorating the abortive Gunpowder Plot of
Guido (Guy) Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605,
the event is celebrated with fireworks and bonfires. In the days
preceding it, the cry of ‘penny for the guy’ can often
be heard (as children plead for money from passers-by in the street
with an effigy of Fawkes). This is not a specifically Scottish
festival although it is often overlooked that one of main
reasons for Fawkes’ attempted regicide was to ‘blow
the Scots back again into Scotland’, i.e. the removal of
the recently crowned James VI and II as joint ruler of both countries,
along with his followers.
11
November
Martinmas The feast of St Martin, tutor to St Ninian, was the
last Scottish Quarter Day of the year when rents and contracts
fell due. With fodder becoming scarce by this time of the tear,
cattle were often killed at this time and salted meats and puddings
prepared for the coming winter months.
30 November
St Andrew’s Day The feast of Scotland’s patron saint
used to be widely celebrated but the day is not a public holiday
in Scotland; St Andrew’s Night is now celebrated more by
expatriate Scots around the world than native Scots at home.
DECEMBER
24 December
Sowans Nicht This Christmas Eve tradition in some parts of Scotland
derived from the eating of ‘sowans’, a dish made from
oat husks and fine meal steeped in water.
25
December
Christmas Day Traditionally celebrated in medieval Scotland. But
this stopped in the 16th century — the kill-joy fundamentalists
of post-Reformation Scotland frowned on celebrations, and Christ’s
birth was no exception. Christmas was a working day in Scotland
until the mid-2Oth century and has only recently re-emerged as
a day of celebration, this time on the back of international business
and commercial practices.
26
December
The Mason’s Walk Boxing Day is the feast of St John the Apostle
and Evangelist and a source of Masonic celebration across Scotland.
In Melrose, masons parade by torchlight around the market
square before walking to the abbey to conduct a service.
31
December
Hogmanay Long treated as a more important festival in Scotland
than Christmas, Hogmanay was seen as a time of preparation: houses
were cleaned and business was concluded to let the new year start
afresh. While in recent decades the growing commercialisation
of Christmas has overshadowed Hogmanay, there has been a revival
lately in its celebration with mass street parties, particularly
in Edinburgh.
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