Hogmanay.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 334, 16 January 1889, Page 6

Hogmanay.

' A (Ujtd New Year t'ye, mon !' ' A quid New Year t'ye, Tarn, an' joy bo \vi' yo a. Hands grip bight, and bottle and greeting pa,ss from lip to lip. This is Hogmanay or the eve of the coming year, in England an event overshadowed by Christmas, but in Scotland an occasion of great merrymaking. Why Hogmanay ? That is more than an ingenious philologist can toll. Some bay that Hogmanay is a corruption of two Greek words, meaning holy month. Others contend that it is taken from the French phivxbe a f/m menez — to the misletoo go. Another authority has it that the word is ju&t the French phrase ' Hovime est ye ' — referring to the birth of Christ. A Scottish minister, on the other hand, insists with great force that the word is original Hebrew for ' The devil bo in the house.' In Edinburgh the last day of the year is one of bustling activity. The railway stations are thronged with people coming and going to spend the last hours of the old year and the first hours of the new with their friende. The shops blaze with all the temptations of the season, and the demand for shortcake and oranges is so great that every crazy wheelbarrow is dx-agged from it 3 hiding place and becomes a stall. j Towards midnight, should you be in the neighbourhood of High - &creet, where Scottish history is &aid to be fossilised, your foot may wander in the direction of the Tron Kirk at the point where the North and South bridges meet. You will not bo alone. Long before you roach the Tron you will find yourself but one member of a crowd having the samo object in view. Along the greasy streets come young men and old, either singly or in boisterous groups of three or four — men of every type and class, from the burly porter to the seedy clerk, from the rowdy medical and his hardly less noisy comrade, the divinity student, to the fashionable young gentleman intent upon having ' high jinks.' In bpite of the many differences in appearance and manner, the atoms of this crowd have one thing in common, and that is," a suspicious lump in the region of the chest. The clock is lighted yip, and as the the hands approach the hour of 12, the shouts, the laughter, and the horseplay cease. All eyes turn towards the tower. The first; stroke falls in silence that deepens with each remaining clang of the hammer. The last stroke echoes thi'ough the tower, and a great hurrah bursts from the throats .of the crowd. Each man grasps his neighbour's hand with ' A quid New Year t'ye.' Flasks, noggins, and black bottles — the uwoj-'i^iut.js lumps in Hir nimot «. P po<vx viih startling suddenness, and are passed round the circle. Red fire lights up the scene, and with a final cheer the people set out on their first-footing expeditions.