Hogmena

Captain Cook’s Monument was busy this morning. Plenty of folk working up an appetite for their Christmas Dinner. Me, I dropped down the slope a bit and played with my pareidolia.

I always believed hogmanay is the name for the New Year celebrations in Scotland, yet it transpires that a related term had found currency south of the border. An excerpt from John Trotter Brockett’s ostentatiously titled “A Glossary of North Country Words in Use; with their Etymology, and Affinity to other Languages; and Occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions” of 1829 reads thus¹Brockett, J.T., “A Glossary of North Country Words in Use; with their Etymology, and Affinity to other Languages; and Occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions”, E. Charnley, 1829, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6-cQAAAAYAAJ:

“Hogmena, a name appropriated to December, and to any gift during that month, especially on the last day — a new year’s day offering. Sc. hogmanay. The poor children in Newcastle, in expectation of this present, go about from house to house, knocking at the doors, chaunting their carols, wishing a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and begging their hogmena. The origin of the custom is uncertain. Some pretend to derive the term from the two Greek words, ἁγία μήνη, holy moon; while others maintain that it is only a corruption from the French, homme est né, in allusion to the nativity.”

In another entry:

“Hogmena-night, a Northern term for new year’s eve.”

So up in the North Country, Hogmena extended beyond mere haggis, belted renditions of Auld Lang Syne, and the tradition of ‘first footing’—intruding into a neighbour’s house at the stroke of midnight, equipped with coal, rock-hard shortbread, and just enough coerced goodwill to fill a teaspoon.

Let this approaching year carry a touch less … Scotland. Sláinte mhath, or whatever.

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  Brockett, J.T., “A Glossary of North Country Words in Use; with their Etymology, and Affinity to other Languages; and Occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions”, E. Charnley, 1829, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6-cQAAAAYAAJ