Foula residents celebrate Old Christmas
Chloe Irvine
While the festive period is over for most, Old Christmas has finally arrived in Foula this morning (Saturday)- and old New Year is set to kick off next weekend.
During the 16th century, Pope Gregory replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar.
The calendar year was then in line with the solar equinoxes and both Christmas and New Year were brought forward by almost two weeks.
However, this was not the case in Shetland with Yule held on 6th January and the new year beginning on 13th January.
This tradition has faded in many parts of the isles, but not in Foula.
Kenny Gear, who grew up and lives in Foula, says his two children have the fortune of having two visits from “fine soul Santie”.
“Some families in the isle are still very much stalwarts and won’t do very much on the 25th December at all.
“We have two young ones in the house so Santie actually comes to us twice, like the fine soul that he is,” he said.
While many of the Foula festive traditions have remained the same, Mr Gear recalled during his childhood men hunting shags, known locally as scarfs.
“Back in the day, the men would gather some time and go for a wander and shoot some scarfs.
“A lot of folk don’t know know this, but if you cook a scarf right then there’s nothing wrong with him. If you slow roast it with a brally thick gravy, it comes no bad.
“I remember my brother Bobby telling me he was working with some on the tugs and he had gotten scarf meat from somewhere and they were all taking the piss out of him.
“But it ended up that he didn’t get any to himself because they glepped the lot, it was that fine.”
Though the likes of shooting scarfs has disappeared from tradition, many have remained with Yule being considered more of a social occasion than simply a family one.
“Traditionally, it was informally decided somebody was holding Yule and whoever was holding Yule would move a bit over the years.
“Old Christmas wasn’t really celebrated in the same way that modern traditional family Christmas was, it was a lot more social.”
Read the full story in this week’s Shetland Times.
Maggie Bigland
Love a Shetland Christmas Merry Christmas to all in Foula Papa Stour x
Richard Fleming
Is the date of Old Christmas ‘frozen in time’. One would have thought that if the old calendar had persisted the divergence between that and the ‘correct’ calendar would have increased. I haven’t attempted the sums, but it may be that Old Christmas should now be on the 7th or 8th of January. The 12 day difference may have been correct in 16th century, but might not remain correct today.
Richard Fleming
According to this – https://planetcalc.com/7083/ – if the adjustment were down now, Old Christmas would be on 07 January.