Holy Innocents Day is still called Childermas Day in and near Preston, and is considered an appropriate day for children’s treats and parties.
New Year’s Eve is one of the nights on which it is deemed highly unlucky in the Borders to let the fire out, the others being All Hallowe’en, Beltane or Midsummer Eve, and Christmas Eve. It is not easy to repair the mischief if once committed, for no one is willing on the following morning to give his neighbour a light, lest he should thus give away all his good luck for the season. And he who should steal fire unseen from his neighbour’s hearth would fare no better for it, since fire thus taken is not counted holy.
It is curious to compare this statement of Mr. Wilkie with that given by Mr. Kelly respecting the “holy fires of the Germanic race,” in his Indo-European Traditions and Folk-Lore (page 46). Mr. Kelly enumerates the Easter fires with those on St. John’s Day, Michaelmas, Martinmas, and Christmas. It will be observed that in Scotland the Easter, Michaelmas, and Martinmas fires disappear, while that of All Hallowe’en takes their place. And, while in Scotland all care is taken to preserve the house-fire alight at these hallowed seasons, it has been the usage in Germany, and earlier still throughout all Christendom, to extinguish it and re-light it with holy fire, kindled by the priest with flint and steel in the churchyard.
Empty pockets or an empty cupboard on New Year’s Eve portend a year of poverty. The poet Burns makes mention of this in an epistle to Colonel de Payster, from whom he borrowed a small sum at this season:
To make the old year go out groaning
And keep the new year from coming in moaning.
Indeed, on the Borders care is taken that no one enters a house empty-handed on New Year’s Day. A visitor must bring in his hand some eatable; he will be doubly welcome if he carries in a hot stoup or “plotie.” Everybody should wear a new dress on New Year’s Day, and if its pockets contain money of every description they will be certain not to be empty throughout the
