Click First Footing
Seeing in the New Year with the custom of First Footing used to be prevalent in Scotland and Northern England but Dave said he’d never heard of it and neither had his good lady wife who is a Scot. And as I stood outside our front door five minutes before midnight on the 31st of December, I realised I was the only one out on the street with a handful of salt, a lump of coal and a lucky silver six pence in my pocket. Maybe the custom was on the wane or maybe it just depends on where you live to whether you see in the New Year with a first footer?
I do remember neighbors doing the First Footing when I lived in my last house. And fondly recall the befuddled conversations we had, stood in the dark winter air, waiting for Big Ben to chime midnight from the television set (which had the volume turned right up in the living room) before the front door swinging open and we were dragged into to the warm to the sound of fireworks and the family pets running for cover. So, some people in Scarborough perhaps observe this custom and some do not, or are unaware of its existence. It would be interesting to map, and I wonder if there is a correlation between this and those people who call a yellow turnip a swede?
Various parts of the First Footing custom can be recognised in traditions dating back to the 14th Century but the earliest First Footing reference is from 1804, “at Christmas time it is deemed an omen of ill fortune when a female first enters the house.” I can confirm however that despite this caution from 1804, both of my daughters have been First Footers and even with Grandma on Facetime on the iPad and still maintained both healthy and prosperous New Years. Indeed, Grandma First Footing via FaceTime is now a custom in its own right in my household, after all is that not what the internet is for?
The first person to cross the threshold of your door; bringing in the New Year was, in times past, highly significant. To forget to do First Footing was assumed to be very bad luck and not to give the First Footer refreshment was the height of bad manners. The First Footer had to adhere to certain rules in order to bring luck into the house. It should be a male with dark hair - dark hair was always associated with good fortune - in some areas of the country they say the male should be married, in others areas a bachelor was favored, but the male should most definitely not be boss-eyed or flat footed. He should knock and wait until he is invited in, he should not speak until he places the coal he has brought into the house onto the fire. The back door should also be open to let out the Old Year. In 1870 at a trial in Mansfield, a young lady was asked why was walking the streets at one o'clock in the morning in the early hours of New Years Day? She explained that she was returning from a midnight service at her parish church but her mother would not let her into the house until her father or brother who had dark hair, came in first. The same had happened to a farmer who was locked out of his house by his wife until he could find someone with dark hair to precede him.
The First Footer also needs to adhere to certain tasks and carry certain items into the house in order to bring in the good luck. The tasks include wishing residents luck and joy, sharing kisses and shaking hands, stirring the fire or cutting the cake. Items to be brought in symbolise warmth, prosperity and nourishment. These could be bread, salt, whiskey, wood, sand, money or something green (a piece of living plant) but most usually the items carried in included coal. Coal carried for luck was a common custom amongst many trades. Soldiers in the First World War carried a piece of coal with the hope of making it back home. Sailors also held this tradition as did burglars. In 1899 the Daily Mail explained of burglars, “they almost invariably carry a small piece of coal with them when they start out on an expedition. They choose another piece when their treasure has lost its charm or if they fall into the hands of the police.”
I find it interesting that be the boundary line physical, like a threshold of a house or the front line in a war, or be it abstract like a significant time or date, the tradition of carrying coal for good luck as we cross these boundaries seems to be the thing.
DavWhiteArt.com
to edit.
Seeing in the New Year with the custom of First Footing used to be prevalent in Scotland and Northern England but Dave said he’d never heard of it and neither had his good lady wife who is a Scot. And as I stood outside our front door five minutes before midnight on the 31st of December, I realised I was the only one out on the street with a handful of salt, a lump of coal and a lucky silver six pence in my pocket. Maybe the custom was on the wane or maybe it just depends on where you live to whether you see in the New Year with a first footer?
I do remember neighbors doing the First Footing when I lived in my last house. And fondly recall the befuddled conversations we had, stood in the dark winter air, waiting for Big Ben to chime midnight from the television set (which had the volume turned right up in the living room) before the front door swinging open and we were dragged into to the warm to the sound of fireworks and the family pets running for cover. So, some people in Scarborough perhaps observe this custom and some do not, or are unaware of its existence. It would be interesting to map, and I wonder if there is a correlation between this and those people who call a yellow turnip a swede?
Various parts of the First Footing custom can be recognised in traditions dating back to the 14th Century but the earliest First Footing reference is from 1804, “at Christmas time it is deemed an omen of ill fortune when a female first enters the house.” I can confirm however that despite this caution from 1804, both of my daughters have been First Footers and even with Grandma on Facetime on the iPad and still maintained both healthy and prosperous New Years. Indeed, Grandma First Footing via FaceTime is now a custom in its own right in my household, after all is that not what the internet is for?
The first person to cross the threshold of your door; bringing in the New Year was, in times past, highly significant. To forget to do First Footing was assumed to be very bad luck and not to give the First Footer refreshment was the height of bad manners. The First Footer had to adhere to certain rules in order to bring luck into the house. It should be a male with dark hair - dark hair was always associated with good fortune - in some areas of the country they say the male should be married, in others areas a bachelor was favored, but the male should most definitely not be boss-eyed or flat footed. He should knock and wait until he is invited in, he should not speak until he places the coal he has brought into the house onto the fire. The back door should also be open to let out the Old Year. In 1870 at a trial in Mansfield, a young lady was asked why was walking the streets at one o'clock in the morning in the early hours of New Years Day? She explained that she was returning from a midnight service at her parish church but her mother would not let her into the house until her father or brother who had dark hair, came in first. The same had happened to a farmer who was locked out of his house by his wife until he could find someone with dark hair to precede him.
The First Footer also needs to adhere to certain tasks and carry certain items into the house in order to bring in the good luck. The tasks include wishing residents luck and joy, sharing kisses and shaking hands, stirring the fire or cutting the cake. Items to be brought in symbolise warmth, prosperity and nourishment. These could be bread, salt, whiskey, wood, sand, money or something green (a piece of living plant) but most usually the items carried in included coal. Coal carried for luck was a common custom amongst many trades. Soldiers in the First World War carried a piece of coal with the hope of making it back home. Sailors also held this tradition as did burglars. In 1899 the Daily Mail explained of burglars, “they almost invariably carry a small piece of coal with them when they start out on an expedition. They choose another piece when their treasure has lost its charm or if they fall into the hands of the police.”
I find it interesting that be the boundary line physical, like a threshold of a house or the front line in a war, or be it abstract like a significant time or date, the tradition of carrying coal for good luck as we cross these boundaries seems to be the thing.
DavWhiteArt.com
to edit.
