Undiscovered Scotland

 

"The Little Book of Christmas and Hogmanay: Scotland's Festive Traditions" by Anna Marshall is a beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable little hardback book that is guaranteed to brighten up the festive season of anyone in, or from, or connected to Scotland. It is, in essence, a nicely-illustrated collection of snippets about a large number and wide variety of Scottish festive traditions. Some of them will be very familiar to all Scots, like department store Santas, Auld Lang Syne, guising, first-footing, drinking alcohol and The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals. Others are more localised or idiosyncratic, such as the Biggar Bonfire, Up Helly Aa, Loony Dook, black buns and sowans. Not sure what all those are? That's the real joy of this book: browsing through and discovering, for example, that Sir Alex Ferguson once launched a range of Christmas trees; or the background to the Stromness log pull, which died out for 80 years before being revived in 2017.

Are you looking for a Christmas present for a Scottish relative living abroad? Or for anyone else with an interest in Scotland's traditions, for that matter? Look no further!

The publisher's descrption gives a good sense of the range of content in the book: "From Celtic druids and Viking Yule to the outright banning of Christmas for 400 years, The Broons, first footing and the Loony Dook, this is a joyous miscellany that showcases the creative, elaborate and sometimes downright bizarre aspects of Scottish Christmas and New Year, from the ancient past to the more recent present. It includes different local traditions, from those practised in the Borders all the way to the islands of Orkney and Shetland, as well as the nationwide pastimes enjoyed by everyone. The book is packed with tradition, lore and legend, as well as poems, stories, carols, recipes, history, jokes and fun facts Illustrated throughout with line drawings and black and white photographs. Best enjoyed in front of an open fire with a glass of whisky and a black bun."