Origin of the name: Gwen unsure if its from old Gaelic, og maidne (new morning)
Steak Pie
Five customs:
- Redding the House - Like the annual spring cleaning in some communities, or the ritual cleaning of the kitchen for the Jewish festival of Passover, families traditionally did a major cleanup to ready the house for the New Year. Sweeping out the fireplace was very important and there was a skill in reading the ashes, the way some people read tea leaves. And, at a time of year when fire plays a huge part in celebrations, it's only natural to bring a bit of it into the house. After the big cleanup, someone goes from room to room carrying a smoking juniper branch to discourage evil spirits and chase away disease.
- First Footing After the stroke of midnight, neighbors visit each other, bearing traditional symbolic gifts such as shortbread or black bun, a kind of fruit cake. The visitor, in turn, is offered a small whisky - a wee dram. A friend of mine who remembers first footing, also remembers that if you had a lot of friends, you'd be offered a great deal of whisky. The first person to enter a house in the New Year, the first foot, could bring luck for the whole year to come. The luckiest was a tall, dark and handsome man. The unluckiest a red head and the unluckiest of all a red-haired woman.
- Bonfires and Fire Festivals Scotland's fire festivals at Hogmanay and later in January may have pagan or Viking origins. The use of fire to purify and drive away evil spirits is an ancient idea. Fire is at the center of Hogmanay celebrations in Stonehaven, Comrie and Biggar and has recently become an element in Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebration.
- The Singing of Auld Lang Syne All over the world, people sing Robert Burns' version of this traditional Scottish air. How it became the New Year's song is something of a mystery. At Edinburgh's Hogmanay, people join hands for what is reputed to be the world's biggest Auld Lang Syne.
- The Saining of the House This is a very old rural tradition that involved blessing the house and livestock with holy water from a local stream. Although it had nearly died out, in recent years it has experienced a revival. After the blessing with water, the woman of the house was supposed to go from room to room with a smoldering juniper branch, filling the house with purifying smoke (there's that smoldering juniper branch again). Of course, this being a Scottish celebration, traditional mayhem was sure to follow. Once everyone in the household was coughing and choking from the smoke, the windows would be thrown open and reviving drams (or two or three) of whisky would be passed around
Although some of these traditions are are ancient, Hogmanay celebrations were elevated in importance after the banning of Christmas in the 16th and 17th centuries. Under Oliver Cromwell, Parliament banned Christmas celebrations in 1647. The ban was lifted after Cromwell's downfall in 1660. But in Scotland, the stricter Scottish Presbyterian Church had been discouraging Christmas celebrations - as having no basis in the Bible, from as early as 1583. After the Cromwellian ban was lifted elsewhere, Christmas festivities continued to be discouraged in Scotland. In fact, Christmas remained a normal working day in Scotland until 1958 and Boxing Day did not become a National Holiday until much later.
But the impulse to party, to exchange gifts, and to put the products of Scotland's famous distilleries to good use, could not be repressed. In effect, Hogmanay became Scotland's main outlet for the mid-winter impulse to chase away the darkness with light, warmth and festivities.
---------------------Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday.
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Clan Campbell controlled Islay in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It is believed that the Irish monks first introduced the art of distillation to Islay, during the early fourteenth century. On Islay they found an island eminently suited for the production of Uisge Beathe, (water of life) with unlimited supplies of peat, lochs and rivers filled with pure soft water. The local crofters grew the fore-runner of the modern barley, called bere used for their subsistence, and the surplus distilled.
In the early days, distilling was carried out openly in black shebeens until the introduction, in 1644, of the Excise Act when a tax was levied on whisky. This forced the distillers to move into the remote glens and caves to avoid detection, but in fact the first Gauger did not dare to set foot on Islay until 1797. There was great reluctance on the part of the exciseman to come to an island where the natives were regarded as a "wild barbarous people". In 1777 it is reported by the Reverend John McLeish of Kilchoman Parish that, "we have not an excise officer on the whole island. The quantity therefore, of whisky made here is very great and the evil that follows drinking to excess of this liquor, is very visible on the island". The situation on Islay in 2002 has reverted to that of 1797 where no Gaugers were stationed on the island.
The Mull of Oa peninsula was well known for illicit distilling, with stills found at Cragabus, Stremnishmore, Lower Killeyan and Goil. There were also stills at Octomore, Bridgend, Dail, Lossit, Tallant and Mulindry. Today we are left with eight licensed working distilleries on Islay and one on the island of Jura; between them they produce in excess of 20,000,000 litres of alcohol per year and with a rate of duty of £19.81 per litre of alcohol, Islay and Jura can hold their heads high as major contributors to the UK economy.
In former years possibly 95% of the whisky produced was used in the make up of all the famous blends, i.e. Johnny Walker, White Horse, Black and White, Dewars White Label, Ballantines, Chivas Regal, The Famous Grouse, Bell's; the list is endless, however with the increased interest world wide in "Single Malts" a far greater proportion of whisky is "laid down" for this market. As a result of the shortage of stock of mature whisky for the Single Malt market, some of the current bottlings have become very collectable. Recently a bottle of Black Bowmore, distilled in 1897, sold at auction to an American collector for £14,000. Scotch Whisky can only be made in Scotland, and cannot legally be called whisky, until it has matured for a minimum of three years, in oak casks; prior to this the spirit is referred to as P.B.S. (Plain British Spirit).
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According to the Scotch Whisky Association, Scotch whisky evolved from a Scottish drink called uisge beatha, which means "water of life". The earliest record of distillation in Scotland occurred as long ago as 1494, as documented in the Exchequer Rolls, which were records of royal income and expenditure.[21] The quote above records eight bolls of malt given to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae (Latin for "water of life," = uisge beatha) over the previous year. This would be enough for 1,500 bottles, which suggests that distillation was well-established by the late 15th century.[22]
Whisky production was first taxed in 1644, causing a rise in illicit whisky distilling in the country. Between the 1760s and the 1830s a substantial unlicensed trade originated from the Highlands, forming a significant part of region's export economy. In 1782, more than 1,000 illegal stills were seized in the Highlands: these can only have been a fraction of those in operation. The Lowland distillers, who had no opportunity to avoid taxation, complained that un-taxed Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The heavy taxation during the Napoleonic Wars gave the illicit trade a big advantage, but their product was also considered better quality, commanding a higher price in the Lowlands. This was due to the method of taxation: malt was subject to tax (at a rate that climbed substantially between the 1790s and 1822). The licensed distillers therefore used more raw grain in an effort to reduce their tax bill.
The Highland magistrates, themselves members of the landowning classes, had a lenient attitude to unlicensed distillers - all of whom would be tenants in the local area. They understood that the trade supported the rents paid. Imprisoned tenants would not be able to pay any rent.
In 1823, Parliament eased restrictions on licensed distilleries with the "Excise Act", while at the same time making it harder for the illegal stills to operate. Magistrates found counsel for the crown appearing in their courts, so forcing the maximum penalties to be applied, with some cases removed to the Court of Exchequer in Edinburgh for tougher sentences. Highland landowners were now happy to remove tenants who were distillers in clearances on their estates. These changes ushered in the modern era of Scotch production: in 1823 2,232,000 gallons of whisky had duty paid on it; in 1824 this increased to 4,350,000 gallons.[23]:119–134
Two events helped to increase whisky's popularity: first, the introduction in 1831 of the column still; the whisky produced with this process was generally less expensive to produce and also less intense and smoother, because a column still can perform the equivalent of multiple distillation steps in a continuous distillation process. Second, the phylloxera bug destroyed wine and cognac production in France in 1880.
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Scottish Steak Pie, a New Year's Dish
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