music: The Corries, “Flower of Scotland”
On New Year’s Eve in Scotland, when the first person crosses your threshold after midnight it’s a moment of great significance. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Pulse of the Planet listener Paul Jameson left Scotland when he was twelve years old, but he still recalls Hogmanay – the Scottish celebration of New Years.
“You’re celebrating with the close friends in your house. And New Years, when the bells ring, everyone’s watchin’ the tellie and waitin’ for midnight to come around. What happens is after midnight passes, basically everyone kisses and says cheer. You move from door to door in your neighborhood in your area. And what happens is, the first person that comes to your door determines your luck for the rest of the year. And there’s several factors that determine whether the person is unlucky or lucky. One of the things that I was told is that if it’s a man, it’s lucky. If the person is tall, it’s lucky, dark skinned is lucky. If the person is a stranger, not a friend, then that’s also lucky. And the very last thing is if the person has a lump of coal to give to the guest of the house, then that also is very lucky.
“The one song that I remember that everybody just gets into is ‘The Flower of Scotland.’ It’s pretty much like the Scottish National Anthem. Everyone just kind of puts their arms around each other and you just sway back and forth, left to right, singing The Flower of Scotland.”
Our thanks to The Corries for their version of The Flower of Scotland.
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.