Leggat - HOGMANAY AND WHY SCOTLAND HAS LOST ITS PRESBYTERIAN VALUES

[ian1964 10,578]

"Rise up guidwife and shak your feathers!

 

An dinna think that we are beggars;

 

For weâ??re guid bairs come oot to play,

 

Rise up and gieâ??s oor Hogmanay!

 

Oor feetâ??s caul, oor shinâ??s thin;

 

Gieâ??s a piece, an let us rin!"

 

I have always loved that wee poem since I first read it more than half a century ago. Just as I have always loved The Hogmanay.

 

To me, it is a time of the year which is essentially Scottish Presbyterian and unless you believe the Virgin Birth actually took place and are a fundamentalist, Neâ??erday is also a much more meaningful time than Christmas.

 

Sadly, however, too many folk whose grandparents and parents came from the Scottish Presbyterian tradition have abandoned the New Year, seduced by the more foreign and trite charms of the modern secular Xmas.

 

My auld Scots Presbyterian Granny would be appalled. She loved the New Year, all the cleaning and preparing and the making of her very own Clootie Dumpling. I can still taste it. Warm, reekinâ?? rich, just like the Great Chieftain of the Puddinâ?? Race.

 

Just as I can still taste the almost pure butter flavour of the shortbread my mum used to make as a special Nâ??erday treat for me after I had made a beeline for the border following an English Xmas when I worked in the land of our British cousins, but still found it vital to see in the New Year among my ain folk.

 

In fact, even as a wean the peculiar nature of the New Year celebration in 1950s Scotland â?? old songs, essential Scottishness, the melancholy feeling of the year slipping towards it death, replaced by the good cheer and high hopes placed on the shoulders of the infant year - struck a chord with the romantic Scottish streak in my nature

 

To this day, when the Bells Ring out the Old and herald the New, I am not ashamed to admit to shedding a tear. A wee droplet from the eye in memory of bygone days of yore, for family long gone and times gone with them. For an era when Scotland was a better place, a more tolerant and tolerable nation, indeed when Scotland was a nation more comfortable in its own skin than it is now in an age when Alex Salmond seeks to cause the break- up of the ties which bind us as Britons and when the Republican ranters and IRA supporters of the Green Brigade have Celtic in their grip.

 

This is a Scotland my auld Scots Presbyterian Granny would not recognise as the land of her birth and the one in which she lived all her life.

 

This a Scotland my staunch old Rangers supporting granddad, born in Bonnie Galloway, and who lived all his life in, after returning from the horrors of the Great War, would be appalled at.

 

A Scotland, so out of tune with its past, its real past, its verifiable history, a Scotland so easily seduced by foreign mores, that it has turned its back on its true self.

 

For, for me, there is nothing more essentially Scottish than the coming together of family and friends to uphold the old Hogmanay traditions of their parents and old Presbyterian grandparents. Not to do so is to dishonour their memory and to trample on their values.

 

So, tonight, when the Bells ring out, what is first a melancholy message, but which then becomes the sound of birth, of new life, of new hope, I will raise a glass and nibble on a slice of clootie dumpling (shop bought and not a patch on my auld Presbyterian grannyâ??s) and allow my mind to drift back to the early 1960s and to our wee close knit family celebrations.

 

To a visit to the circus and the carnival with my parents and grandparents. To a trip to the panto, where I once saw the great Duncan McRae perform his peerless Wee Cock Sparra. To my grannyâ??s clootie dumpling. To my mumâ??s shortbread. To my grandadâ??s rendition of That Bomb and Raid, an old soldierâ??s Great War song. To my dad regaling us with his amazing song about the 1945 Rangers-Moscow Dynamo game.

 

And of how, around 2am, a sleepy wee boy trudged happily to his bed anticipating an even greater and more exciting treat on New Yearâ??s Day.

 

A visit to Ibrox to watch Jim Baxter humiliate and take the mickey out of Celtic.

 

To all who share my values of what Hogmanay is truly about, then, when the Bells Ring at midnight may you have ....

 

A GUID NEW YEAR!

[chilledbear 16]

Aye they were different days then.

 

Will be coming up the road today to take in New Year with Family and Friends.

 

Aw the best Gersnet.

[EDGE 0]

Another zany article by the Legmeister.

 

IMO - As a 'nation', the Scots are more tolerant now than they have ever been, something like 40% of marriages are mixed RC/Non RC, with the huge influx of migrants into Glasgow from Eastern Europe and Africa/Asia, you hardly hear of any racial disturbances.

 

As a Glaswegian and a Scot, that makes me extremely proud.

[Anchorman 0]

I can't really be arsed with recollections of 'great auld' times past. It's just poetic license to filter the realities in any way you care to. These would be the same great auld days when domestic violence was rife, kept behind 4 walls, never to be spoken about unless you were the neighbour 'doon sters' or through the wa' who had to put up with it. Or the days when men got in their cars after the pub shut and attempted the drive up the road when they could hardly see in front of them, not caring a jot who they 'took out' in the process. As I say filter it any way you care to. I could accuse the Grey\Green Brigade of a lot but I will stop short of blaming them for Christmas becoming more popular than New Year. Try Americanised TV Leggo and you might find an answer closer to the truth there mate.

 

As Gladys Knight sings in 'The Way We Were' - "Hey, you know, everybody's talkin' about the good old days, right?

Everybody.......the good old days, the good old days. Well, let's talk about the good old days!

Come to think of it as, as bad as we think they are these will become the good old days for our children".

 

Have a great New Year everybody!

Edited December 31, 2012 by Anchorman

[Zappa 0]

Leggo's certainly from a different epoch and harking back to it is only to be expected for some of our elders like him, as they do like to tell stories of their good 'ol days and the great times they shared when they were young.

 

Regarding his point though, I don't know why he's surprised or even questioning the fact that our society has changed and is still changing when he's talking about a 50 to 60 year period. I'd be worried if there weren't radical changes over that sort of period of time, but yet again Leggo seeks to use something to divide himself off as better than other people in some way.

 

He uses this natural change in values over a simple traditional celebration to separate off some of his readership who might not be what he considers staunch enough and only wishes "A GUID NEW YEAR!" to those who share his values.

 

He's started doing this in some of his blog articles when talking about Rangers as well, trying to suggest that he's a real fan because of some of his views while suggesting anyone who opposes his views isn't a real fan.

[kuznetsov 0]

the times they have changed, this is no longer a protestant country. in fact i also question whether the church of scotland is even a credible church. the romans are here to stay and they have took over quicker than even they thought possible.

[BEARGER 1,829]

More claptrap and nostalgic nonsense from Leggat. Scotland is now a far more secular country and better for it .

[kuznetsov 0]

More claptrap and nostalgic nonsense from Leggat. Scotland is now a far more secular country and better for it .

 

is that why the catholic church have the power to ban songs sung by certain football fans? or why the catholic church is having a bigger say in politics than it ever has?

Edited December 31, 2012 by kuznetsov

[the gunslinger 3,366]

how can you be presbyterian and not believe in the virgin birth.

[RANGERRAB 3,387]

is that why the catholic church have the power to ban songs sung by certain football fans? or why the catholic church is having a bigger say in politics than it ever has?

 

so long as we continue electing celtic-supporting politicians they'll walk all over us. Time to be more vigilant in who we elect