{"id":3552,"date":"2014-12-29T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=3552"},"modified":"2014-12-28T08:49:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T16:49:43","slug":"holiday-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=3552","title":{"rendered":"RINGING IN THE YEAR WITH…HOGMANAY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"happy<\/a>I was reading about how Americans celebrate the holidays<\/strong> the other day, expecting to have my cockles warmed. \u00a0Instead, I ended up with just the slightest amount of indigestion. \u00a0All I can say is, people are very strange. \u00a0We’ve moved a long way from Grandma baking cookies and Dad reading “The Night Before Christmas”<\/strong>. I learned about pickle Christmas trees, binge-watching COPS one night of Hanukkah, and farting contests on Christmas Eve. \u00a0Really. It got so weird that when I read about one family that left cookies and rum for Santa I thought of them as the most reasonable people<\/strong> in the article. \u00a0So I skipped over the American customs (or as I came to call them, “White Trash Traditions<\/em>“)\u00a0and commenced reading about holiday celebrations around the world. \u00a0In comparison to the U.S., they were pretty tame – not a farting contest among them. \u00a0But then I stumbled on a tradition I’d never heard of – Hogmanay<\/strong>. \u00a0It is the Scottish word for “last day of the year”. \u00a0How could I not have heard of this? \u00a0My father-in-law was born and raised in Glasgow. \u00a0I checked with my husband. \u00a0Nope, he’d never heard of it either. \u00a0So I thought it was completely bogus until I did some further research. \u00a0I’ll say one thing after boning up on Hogmanay- those Scots know how to celebrate<\/strong>. \u00a0So in case you need a bit of inspiration for your\u00a0New Year’s Eve,<\/strong> here is everything you need to know about hosting your own Hogmanay celebration.<\/p>\n

First (and it may already be too late for \u00a0some of you) Christmas is marked by a very sedate family get-together<\/strong> and is a time for reflection and prayer. Then December 31 rolls around all hell breaks loose. Hogmanay is marked by a loud, joyous occasion<\/strong> celebrating the birth of a new year. \u00a0An important element of Hogmanay celebrations is to welcome friends and strangers<\/strong> to your home, with warm hospitality and, of course, a kiss to wish everyone a \u2018Guid New Year\u2019. \u2018Auld Lang Syne\u2019<\/strong> is sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young New Year on a happy note. \u00a0So far, I’m really liking this Hogmanay thing.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a>

A “lucky” First Footer<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the most important traditions of Hogmanay is called First-Footing<\/strong>. Once midnight strikes and the calendar flips to January 1st, all eyes await the arrival of the year\u2019s first visitor<\/strong>. The person who crosses the home\u2019s threshold first is said to be a predictor of good fortune<\/strong> in the year ahead. To ensure good luck, a first footer should be a dark-haired male<\/strong> (think George Clooney). Fair-haired first footers were not particularly welcome after the Viking invasions<\/strong> of ancient times (just ask Tiger Woods about Elin Nordegren). \u00a0To “first foot” a household empty-handed is considered grossly discourteous, and VERY unlucky. \u00a0Traditional gifts include a lump of coal<\/strong> to lovingly place on the host\u2019s fire, along with shortbread, a black bun<\/strong> and whisky to toast to a Happy New Year. \u00a0Other than the whiskey it all seems a bit dodgy and frankly, like something was grabbed at the last-minute. \u00a0But who is to judge? \u00a0We’ve all had to raid the pantry for a last-minute hostess gift<\/strong> and I guess a black bun is as good as anything provided that the “black” isn’t due to mold. \u00a0I must say however, that this list of gifts does nothing to improve the Scots’ reputation for being cheap.<\/p>\n

In the event that you just aren’t up for hosting a Hogmanay celebration, \u00a0or you only hang out with blonde women, I will share with you a Sparrow family tradition<\/strong> that has held us in good stead for many years: Pop’s Ice Cream Fizz<\/strong>. \u00a0I wrote about this delicious concoction previously when describing our Christmas morning traditions. \u00a0Believe me, it has put a roseate hue<\/strong> on what might otherwise have been some testy moments. \u00a0Occasionally Pop would also fix it on New Year’s morning<\/strong> as a special treat. \u00a0So as a public service to our subscribers, here is the recipe:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pop,<\/a>

Pop, near 80 years old, still making magic<\/p><\/div>\n

POP’S ICE CREAM FIZZ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fill a blender 1\/4 full with ice cubes<\/p>\n

Add 6 jiggers of gin<\/p>\n

Add 4 scoops of French Vanilla ice cream<\/p>\n

Add 1 small bottle of soda water (the size you get in a 6-pack)<\/p>\n

My brother Bob adds an egg so the white adds some froth, brother Jack doesn’t add an egg. \u00a0Personally, I’d add it just because you can then claim it’s a protein drink.<\/p>\n

Just blend for a couple of minutes, and voila!, you have a nectar from the gods<\/strong>. \u00a0And for those of you who don’t like gin, please don’t turn up your nose. \u00a0Believe me, the ice cream masks the flavor. \u00a0You will want to bathe<\/em> in this stuff.<\/p>\n

So as the year ends, whether you celebrate with Hogmanay<\/strong> or Pop’s Ice Cream Fizz,<\/strong> my brother Bob and I wish you and your family a very happy and healthy New Year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading about how Americans celebrate the holidays the other day, expecting to have my cockles warmed. \u00a0Instead, I ended up with just the slightest amount of indigestion. \u00a0All I can say is, people are very strange. \u00a0We’ve moved … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1719,1714,1716,1712,1717,500,501,1715,1713,1720,1718],"class_list":["post-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-celebration","tag-first-footer","tag-gin","tag-hogmanay","tag-lump-of-coal","tag-new-years-day","tag-new-years-eve","tag-pops-ice-cream-fizz","tag-scotland","tag-viking-invasion","tag-whiskey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/happy-hogmanay.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-Vi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3571,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}