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Weihnachten in Scotland, Inverurie

Hello. My name is Victoria and I am from the far north east corner of Scotland. Here in my home town of Inverurie we celebrate Christmas with a number of traditions, many of them similar to those celebrated throughout Europe and indeed, the world.

In schools and the community we have parties and concerts that feature Christmas songs and carols such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and In the Bleak Mid Winter. The town is decorated with coloured lights and the lights on a large Christmas tree in the market place are usually turned on by a (never extremely famous) celebrity! To varying degrees, the people of Inverurie celebrate the religious meaning of Christmas and several services are held at the town’s four churches. Every year a number of local people perform in a pantomime that is shown at the Town Hall. Pantomimes are distinctly British – they tell fairy tales and well-known stories (such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) with many comic alterations to the plot and script. There is always audience participation (We “boooooooo!” at the villains and “hooraaaaaay!” for the heroes) and the cast always has at least one man playing a woman’s part – usually the evil step-mother or the ugly sisters. This character is called the pantomime dame.

Though Christmas Eve is not an official holiday in Scotland, Christmas day is observed by the whole nation. Families get together and exchange gifts, eat a meal of roast turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings, and having eaten to near-bursting point settle in front of the TV to watch the Queen’s speech in the afternoon. The day after Christmas day, known as Boxing Day, is also a national holiday. On this day it is traditional to eat the left-over food and take walks in the country to burn off those excess calories!

In Scotland, New Year’s Eve is nearly as big a celebration as New Year’s Day – we do like our parties here, and therefore must celebrate both the end of one year and the beginning of the next! We call New Year’s Eve Hogmanay and on this night we dance to Scottish music at ceilidhs. At midnight, we wish one another a happy new year and we sing a song by the Scottish poet, Robbie Burns, named Auld Lang Syne . The song is about celebrating a friendship that lasts through time and distance. The sentiments of Auld Lang Syne, though not sung with the same words or in the same language, are no doubt shared by many throughout the world at this time of year.

By Victoria Atkinson, 19