Goodbye 2012

                                  

2012 has been a good year for Brits what with the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee although Londoners got the best of it and the rest of us may just remember 2012 as the wettest year since records began. Meanwhile we are all waiting to welcome in the New Year.
The place to be is Scotland where the New Year celebrations are called Hogmanay and are much more important than Christmas. They have two days off to recover and probably hangovers to match as the welcome consists of numerous toasts of whisky.
New Year is the other time (with Guy Fawkes night) when the public can buy retail fireworks and a number of neighbours will be letting them off at midnight but fireworks are a recent addition to the New Year celebrations. In London the traditional place to go was Trafalger Square and crowds would gather and the more inebriated celebrate in the fountains. Many years ago they started turning the fountains off to prevent this  and controlling access to the square to prevent crushes and stampedes as Trafalger Square can only hold about 80.000 people. For the Millenium the authorities were concerned that many, many more people than usual would turn out so they put on a special fireworks show on the river to disperse the crowds. It could take 250,000 spectators safely and was such a success  that they have repeated it every year since.
The old tradition is of first-footing where the first person to visit the house, usually immediately after mid-night should be tall, dark and bring presents of salt and coal. Usually a member of the party, preferably not the householder was sent out at five minutes to mid-night to be let in at 30 seconds past. It is also traditional to sing "Auld Lang Syne" by the Scots poet Robbie Burns. The words are not really English but lowland Scots.
My favourite New Years were when we were living in Liverpool. It was the tradition there to leave your party and go out into the street to join hands in a circle to sing Auld Land Syne at midnight. The circle would be joined by other parties and stray motorists who hadn't got to their party in time. Midnight was marked by the sounding of horns by ships on the Mersey and after the singing you would kiss everybody in sight and wish them "Happy New Year".

                                             

                                           Auld Lang Syne

                                               Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
                                               And never brought to mind?
                                               Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
                                               And days o’ lang syne!

                                              Chorus:
                                              For auld lang syne, my dear
                                              For auld lang syne,
                                              We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
                                              For auld lang syne!