LL-L 'Traditions' 2006.12.09 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 09 December 2006 * Volume 01
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L 'Festive Season

It's usual to discuss traditional festivities on the List around this time
of the year, but I thought this time I'd say a few words about our modern
ways of celebrating in the UK.

First in our festive season is Guy Fawkes Day, which starts in early October
with the sale of explosive devices to the general public, although we're
protected by having cream doughnuts confiscated at airports lest they be
made into explosive devices.

All through October fireworks are set off, and by the first week of November
terrified pets and many children have to be continually nursed and
longsuffering hearing people keep telling me it sounds like there's a war
going on outside.

As the noise subsides over the second week of November, the few shopkeepers
who didn't break the law by selling fireworks to children are praised by
police and get a mention in the papers.

All of this engulfs Halloween which is a disorganised little affair that
occurs on the last two weeks of October with people going about in cheap or
sometimes homemade outfits begging for money and sweets. Sometimes people
will come up to me and congratulate me on my costume, even though I'm
wearing my everyday clothes.

The shops always fill up with great mountains of pumpkins around this time,
but since British people don't know how to cook pumpkins, they just carve
smiley faces on them.

Another thing about Halloween is that it's the first day of Christmas. For
example, the big local hotel here starts Halloween morning by putting up
their Christmas trees and decorations. The staff will wear Santa hats from
then until the end of the year or so.

Manufacturers know that people will now be spending as much money as they
can borrow, so there will be a rush to get their newest products into the
shops, though there will always be a few cowboy outfits who don't make it in
time, like Microsoft.

The highlight of a British Christmas, though, is always the Christmas
dinner. Everybody has a Christmas dinner every few days or so from the
beginning of December, interspersed with extreme dieting. The main Christmas
Dinner occurs on December 25th, when families get together to eat, drink and
karaoke. Traditional greetings are exchanged, such as "I didn't get you
anything," "We didn't do Christmas cards this year," and "You really
shouldn't have". This day can be a very cathartic experience for many
people, especially at the bit where ET comes back to life.

Finally, we come to the New Year, or Hogmanay as we Scots call December 31st
and the end/beginning of the year celebrations in general. Scots do try to
cling to the tradition religiously but there seem to be some insidious
changes creeping in year by year, with fewer and fewer people first-footing
and yet more and more drink being consumed. Where each person just took one
bottle of whisky first-footing in the past it now seems necessary to take
half a dozen bottles of assorted drink and a shoulderful of beer. The upshot
of this is that everybody sits talking quietly into the small hours in the
morning with occasional bursts of song from a chap with a quiff that nobody
seems to know.

Sandy Fleming http://scotstext.org/

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

Thanks for this splendid updated overview of the festive season in Britain.

Please allow me to add that on List, besides New Year's Eve and Hogmanay,
December 31 is also known as "Sandy the Fleming Day," since it's your
birthday and thus a great occasion for your fellow listers to celebrate.
Since this time around I will be traveling south with little or no internet
access, I wish you a happy birthday now, and I hope you'll get lots of
compliments on your costume, if you wear one or not.

Thanks for all your support this year, Sandy, also for collaborating with me
in translating Chinese poems into Scots for the periodical _Lallans_, which
was a real buzz, hopefully not the last one of this sort. Oops! Or was that
last year?

Take care!
Reinhard/Ron

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