The Easter season does not fall on a fixed date but is based
on the Jewish lunar calendar. Neither Scot nor Gael needs the
official church calendar to find out when it begins as people
accustomed to observing the moon followed the traditional sayings:
'First come Candlemas, Syne the new mune; The neist Tyseday eftir
that is Fastern E'en' (First Candlemas, then the new moon; the
next Tuesday after that is the eve of the fast, i.e. Shrove Tuesday).
Or, in Gaelic Scotland, Chiad Di-màirt de'n t-solus Earraich
(The first Tuesday of the Spring Light, i.e. after the new moon
which follows the vernal equinox). Shrove Tuesday is the day
before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, forty days
of austerity, observed by Scottish Episcopal and Catholic churches,
though largely ignored by Protestant churches.
Throughout the Christian world there are traditions of sports, festivals
and carnivals on Shrove Tuesday but apart from the Borders' Ba',
few survive in Scotland. Though illegal since the 19th century,
the most popular sport was once cock-fighting, with the school-master
taking the bets for the day.
Lent is observed as a religious season, during which devoted Catholics
and Scottish Episcopalians give up certain normal 'luxuries' such
as eating meat. Fish, almost a luxury by the late 20th century,
was traditionally eaten, and in the Outer Hebrides seal and cormorant
were also permitted in the diet.
The season lasts for six weeks, punctuated by special days and
culminating in Easter Sunday. The fifth Sunday, Palm Sunday,
marks the beginning of Holy Week observed in both Protestant
and Catholic churches. Some, such as Old St. Paul's Episcopal
Church in Edinburgh, hold a Palm Sunday procession carrying palms
through the adjacent streets. Maundy Thursday is observed on
the ecclesiastical calendar, to commemorate the day when Christ
washed the feet of His disciples. A custom dating back to the
Middle Ages is still practised by the Queen who gives 'Maundy
money', (usually in an English catherdal), to men and women,
traditionally from the poorest people, one coin for each year
of her age. In the Hebrides Maundy Thursday was also known as
Là
Brochain Mhòire, ('the day of the Big Porridge') when
produce from the land, usually porridge, was poured into the
sea while reciting a prayer for seaweed to fertilise the land.
The next day is Good Friday, more aptly named in Gaelic, Di-haoine
na Ceusa, (Crucifixion Friday). Until the late 19th century there
was a strong belief that no iron spade or plough should be put in
the ground, and that the band should be removed from the spinning
wheel so it could not be used to bind Christ's hands and feet.
Easter Sunday, marking the end of Lent, celebrates Christ's resurrection
and is traditionally a day of large church attendances. In some
places it is also the day for Easter egg-rolling (though others
wait till Monday) to commemorate the rolling of the stone from Christ's
tomb. Traditionally the eggs were hard-boiled in onion skins or
tea to decorate them, and taken to a local hillside. Chocolate eggs
became popular in the 20th century, and in keeping with other commercial
pressures, a new fashion (borrowed from America, along with the
Easter bunny) encouraged parents to hide store-bought varieties
for children.
The ecclesiastical calendar notes that Pentecost falls on the seventh
Sunday of the Easter season, and is known as Whitsunday. In Scotland,
however, 'Whitsunday' is a fixed term day, May 25 (O.S.), referred
to as 'flitting day' because the year's house-lease runs from that
date. Farming communities hired labourers on that day and also six
months later at Martinmas, November 11th. Both dates are also established
on the Scottish legal calendar.
[Margaret Bennett, SCOTTISH CALENDAR CUSTOMS, in The Oxford Book
of Scottish History, (ed. M. Lynch, 2001)]
