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Webmaster
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Folklore topics
| Beltane |
On Beltane eve it was common
to light two fires and drive the cattle between them for
'saining' [purifying]. A special bannock was prepared, divided
by the number of people attending, then, before putting the
pieces in a bag, one was charred. Everyone chose one, then
the person with the blackened segment jumped across the embers
of the dying fire for good luck... read
more
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| The Celtic Year |
As
the first custom of the Scottish New Year straddles the last
day of the old and the first of the new, a catalogue of Scottish
calendar customs would sit uneasily on the current twelve-month
Gregorian or 'New Style' calendar... read
more
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| Children's Folklore |
My
Grandfather used to sing to me as a wee girl. He was a highland
dancer and he used to do 'The Highland Fling' with his tackety
boots on the kitchen floor...He used to give me a Saturday
penny... we used to go into Smarts, she had a wee sweetie
shop in the square in Turriff. I got a ha'penny worth o'
caramel bon-bons and a ha'penny worth o' chocolate bon- bons.
Granny always got one caramel and one chocolate bon-bon back.
I always brought that for my Granny... read more
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Christmas
&
New Year |
The
Last Stronghold (1989)
has a chapter devoted to traditions of Christmas and the New
Year. Since many of these traditions had died out in Scotland
this account, based on tape-recordings, gives a rare insight
into the older Scottish traditions... read more
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| Customs (general) |
"Folklore-customs
and beliefs were no idle play, but earnest attempts to safeguard
vital human interests." --R.
Christiansen ... read more
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Dance |
"Stepdancing:
why we must learn from past mistakes", in The West Highland
Free Press, Oct. 14, 1994. See also, dance, in 'Traditons of
the Taigh Ceilidh' in The
Last Stronghold ... read more
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| Easter |
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' ... read
more
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| Emigration |
Recorded
for Ottawa's National Museum in 1976, Christie MacArthur,
born in Quebec in 1888:My father was born in Scotland...
on the Isle of Lewis... Well... I think he was fifteen years
[old] when he came to Canada ...he was herding cattle, that's
about all I heard. [laughs] Sheep or cattle, I don't know....-but
I think they were encouraged to leave...Well, they were kind
of forced to leave… read
more
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| Fairies |
"1690-1990: Balquhidder
Revisited",
a chapter in The Good People: New Fairylore Essays, ed. by
Peter Narvaez, published by Garland Publishing, U.S.A., Oct.
l991. Other references
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Traditions
of
Food |
Hebridean Foodways
in For What Time I am in this World: Stories from Mariposa,
ed. Bill Usher & Linda Page-Harper,
published by Peter Martin Associates Ltd., Toronto, l977. Other
references
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| Hallowe'en |
As
darkness was believed to precede light, so the year began
with the dark half at Samhainn, the eve of November 1, that
is, October 31st, commonly known as Hallowe'en… read
more
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Imbolc
(or not?) |
There
is no evidence that Imbolc, the equivalent term in Old Irish,
was ever part of Scottish Gaelic... read more
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Plants |
Contributions to the
Dictionary of the Folklore of Plants in Britain and Ireland,
edited by Roy Vickery, British Museum of Natural History, London,
1996. Other references
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Craft
&
Quilting |
For the really old
quilts, it was just odds and ends of your dresses and aprons,
and so on. They never had material enough of one kind, like.
Just hit and miss... And tacks, you know, rolled tacked quilts
made... read more
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Music
&
Songs |
"Gaelic Song in
Eastern Canada: Twentieth Century Reflections", in Folksongs:
Chansons, a special edition of Canadian Folklore Canadien,
Vol. 14, 2, Ottawa, Canada, 1992. Other references
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St. Bride's
Day |
In accordance
with the policy of the early Christian church, festive days
were retained and invested with a new significance on the
Christian calendar. St. Bride's Day extends to February 2nd,
and is observed as Candlemas... read more
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Storytelling |
Three traditional tales
recorded from Gaels in Quebec, published as a Tribute to Alan
Bruford, founder of Tocher. in Tocher 52, 1997. Other refences.
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| Weaving |
My mother, even in
her day, she did the complete job from the sheep to the bed.
She used to make all her own wool-for the blankets it was the
natural colour except for contrasting threads. They dyed that
in blues and reds... read more
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