Well, the Christmas season is over, as are the New Year celebrations, albeit they were a bit muted again this year, so with that in mind I thought I’d cheer everyone up with a wee look into the way some of the city’s inhabitants celebrated Christmas in the early 1600s. Dipping once more into the Annals of Aberdeen, I was slightly surprised to find that some of our forebears had a distinctly modern attitude to having fun…
“At the close of this era, several ancient customs continued to prevail in the town. Young men and women, interchanging the dress of their sex, and disguising themselves with masks and bells, frequented marriage entertainments, where they carolled and danced; and, in the same ludicrous attitude, intruded upon the inhabitants at Christmas and New-year’s day, carolling and dancing, in expectation of some small gratuity; the citizens resorted to Downiehill and Saint Fethac’s well, in the parish of Nigg, on the nights of Saturdays, in the month of May, and lighted fires on the streets on Midsummer eve; and the children at school paraded through the town to the cross, with lights in their hands, on Candelmas day.”
As always, the killjoy authorities took a dim view of these activities…
“These customs continued to be practised by the people, although they were prohibited by the civil magistrate, under severe penalties, and anathematised, as superstitious, by the ecclesiastical court. They prevailed, even towards the end of the eighteenth century, and some of them are not yet in disuse.”
Plus ça change…
Julie Skinner, Resourcing and Benefits Specialist, RGU