. Scotland. possible. The school-children have holidays,and the grown-up sons and daughters who have goneout into the world and are earning their living in othertowns will travel long distances in order to bring inthe New Year at home. But surely you do not mean to say that those twodays are more important holidays than Christmas Dayand Boxing Day ? I think I hear some English childexclaim. But I do. Strange as it may seem, ChristmasDay is not a holiday at all in Scotland, except for clerksin banks, and for people living at home who can keepit as a holiday if they like. If you go along the str
. Scotland. possible. The school-children have holidays,and the grown-up sons and daughters who have goneout into the world and are earning their living in othertowns will travel long distances in order to bring inthe New Year at home. But surely you do not mean to say that those twodays are more important holidays than Christmas Dayand Boxing Day ? I think I hear some English childexclaim. But I do. Strange as it may seem, ChristmasDay is not a holiday at all in Scotland, except for clerksin banks, and for people living at home who can keepit as a holiday if they like. If you go along the streets on Christmas Morningyou will find that most of the shops are open, and allthe mills and factories are working; and if you take awalk in the country you will see the farm labourersploughing, or carting stones, just as if it were any otherday. This is because, at the Scottish Reformation, itwas decided that no day was to be kept as a Holy Dayexcept Sunday; and it is only little by little that Scottish 32. BORDER SETTING OUTON A CATTLE RA 3 PA THE Some Holiday Customs people are beginning to sec that it is a right and fittingthing that Christmas Day should he kept as a specialday, in remembrance of the Great Gift that came tomankind on the first Christmas Morning of all. o But if the majority of Scottish people treat ChristmasDay as an ordinary day, six days later all is when Knglish folk are settling down to theireveryday work again, after their Christmas festivities,their neighbours over the Border are preparing tokeep their New Year. This begins, as I have said,on Old Years Day. On that day all the shops areshut, and all factories and mills closed. Then, when their mothers are busy at home reddingup the house — scrubbing the floors, and makingeverything look like a new pin, in preparation for thehappy family gatherings which are always held on OldYears Night and New Years Day--the children sallyout in bands to seek their Hogmanay, that is, they gor
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