Nearly a NEW YEAR!

Preamble to this post:

NEW YEAR! Oh yes it is! And as is evidenced by the last few years, there's likely to be a spate of posts, and then, well, it'll run dry. Unless, of course, this year is different.

And it might be!

So much has changed! I have entered a new decade! I had my first cancer scare! I decided to really get my life organized! I am the mother of teens instead of "kids". That's a lot of change!
That's shift-worthy. Whether it equates to more frequent blogs remains to be seen! Ahahahaha!

I was brought up with a very idealized memory of the "auld ways" when Christmas was not the real celebration, but New Year (Hogmanay in Scots) was. We were a strange little pocket of the scottish diaspora recalling "first-footing", making foods that guarantee a happy, fruitful year, and opening the doors to kick the old year out. Completely unaware that nobody else did this anymore....just us. And we believed that across the sea, everybody was doing all this stuff to insure a good year for us despite our life on the frontier.

As it turns out, they had stopped. Sometime around when the British money changed I think....so....we were carrying on with black bun and herring and arranging our first visitor to be a tall, dark haired, gorgeous man to bring us coal, shortbread, and whiskey. (We didn't want to take the chance of a bad luck visitor....like a red haired female!) So we were strict with our adherence to the old country ways....unaware that we were the only ones doing it.

Try changing now though! I have, in the last several years, thought about ditching these traditions....but truth be told, I'm scared of the bad luck it might bring on me. Seriously.
My year was totally excremental even WITH the right foods, and the handsome first-foot....am I really going to risk bring bad down on me?! Am I really that superstitious....or am I only just a little stitious? ( Stole that gag from "The Office")

So back in Scotland, I think most of my peeps are having a quiet night in although some might be getting really, leglessly inebriated...and I shall be pulling out the stops to keep all these crazy traditions.

So my son then asks the question: "So do we REALLY believe that jack o'lanterns scare away evil spirits? Do we REALLY believe we'll be hungry if we don't eat herring at Hogmanay? Do we really?"

Do we? Do I? And the answer is.....quite possibly maybe....whilst firmly no! I don't really, yet I can't pull away from the romantic notion of a whole culture still doing this...and quite possibly believing this. How much of tradition, or even superstition, informs our theology?