The first Hogmanay celebration was on the last night of December when the New Year was heralded with a dram at midnight. Since children were not permitted to have a dram their turn to celebrate came on the 12th of January when the Old New Year was traditionally ushered in. This was Oidhche Challainn, the Night of the Calends. In Uist we called it Oidhche nan Callaigean. In some places it was called Oidhche Chullaig.

Some people observed two New Year’s eves, the old one and the new one. Some cynics claimed that this was an excuse to drink for two weeks. Or so I was told. When an old gentleman in Cape Breton was explaining Hogmanay customs to me I asked if they used have a dram. “Who, me?” he said. “Not a drop touched my gob.” He then grinned and said: “Oh what a liar I am.”

On Hogmanay we went around the houses of the community reciting verses and receiving presents. Alasdair quoted part of one the Callainn poems. Here’s some more of it:

I will go clockwise round the dwelling And I will stop at the door,
A Callainn skin in my pocket,
That will produce good smoke;
The man of the house will get to hold it
And will dip its tip in the fire;
Everyone who smells it
Will be forever healthy.
It will go clockwise around the children,
And especially the woman of the house;
She is worthy of of it,
The hand that distributes the bannocks,
The hand that would give us cheese and butter,
The hand without meanness or scarcity.
Since a drought has come to the land
We will not expect anything fancy,
Only some summer produce
That we will get along with the bread.

We also had a shorter verse and it’s surprising that we received anything at all after reciting it. Today it would not be politically correct.

I came here on a Hogmanay visit,
A little boy in bare feet;
The person who will not wish to give me a bannock
Will get his/her eye plucked out by a hoodie-crow.

After receiving our gift we would give the following thanks:

Bless this house and all who dwell in it,
Men and women and children;
Plenty food and plenty clothing,
May they all be healthy.

Although we mentioned the Callainn skin in the poem we did not carry one in our pocket. This was the Callainn skin, a sheep’s tail steeped in grease, covered with a rag, and then dried and singed. Some called it the Calends Candle. Our ancestors used it as a charm to ward off evil spirits. The tradition was dead by the time I was growing up.

By John Alick Macpherson