Hogmanay bears down on us
I belong to Glasgow,
Dear old Glasgie toon;
But somethin's the matter wi' Glasgie,
For it's goin' roond an' roond!
I'm only a common old working chap,
As anyone here can see,
But when I get a couple o' drinks on a Saturday,
Glasgow belongs to me!
YES, HOGMANAY belongs to the Scots. As do St Andrew's Nicht and Burns Nicht. But noisy celebration of the passing of the Old Year and the birth of the New has spread across the world to all kinds of peoples and cultures, though usually still with a strong Scots flavour, not least of single malt. Rabbie Burns captured the celebrations worldwide for Scotland with Auld Lang Syne, which they will start singing in Australia and New Zealand some time tonight and will carry on in shifts for 24 hours as our planet spins in its orbit round the sun for the last time in 2011.
Why the excitement? What's the significance of just another day? One thinks of the famous Punch cartoon of two hippos standing in a swamp, one saying: "I keep thinking it's Thursday". What makes Saturday, December 31, 2011, any different, when you think of the vastness of the universe and the millions of years it's been going, from January 1, 2012? Why such a fixation on the calendar?
It's difficult to answer. Probably humanity needs a sense of renewal, new hope. Why the booziness? Maybe people just need a party, to let their hair down. Burns certainly sensed that. But the lines quoted above are not from Burns, they're by music hall entertainer Will Fyffe who based them on an encounter he had at Glasgow Central Station in the 1920s with a drunk who was declaiming with equal enthusiasm on Karl Marx and John Barleycorn (favourite topics at Glasgow Central Station late at night).
Fyffe asked the drunk if he belonged to Glasgow, to which he replied: "At the moment, at the moment, Glasgow belongs to me!" And from this sprang the song, adding to Scotland's reputation for living it up.[1]
We all know who Karl Marx was (though he's not likely to feature much in tomorrow night's celebrations. The Theory of Surplus Value is a bit of a clunker on New Year's Eve). Who was John Barleycorn?
Actually he's a mythical figure of an English folksong (English, not Scottish) who is killed, ploughed under, harrowed, scythed and generally mistreated, but harvested and eventually made into beer and whisky. Scholar Kathleen Herbert draws a link between Beowa (a mythical figure stemming from Anglo-Saxon paganism whose name means "barley") and the figure of John Barleycorn. She says Beowa and Barleycorn are one and the same. The hymn, We Plough the Fields and Scatter, is often sung at Harvest Festival to the same tune as the folksong.
That's interesting. Just as Christmas was celebrated again last week as an overlay to the ancient pagan celebration of the winter solstice, so tomorrow's festivities are lubricated in large part by John Barleycorn, a once pagan figure who now provides the score to a Harvest Festival hymn. It's rather cheering.
People will be celebrating all over the place tomorrow. Everywhere will be Glasgow. I personally will probably repair to the La Bella street shelter for over-40s for some sedate Bambaduza dancing and the occasional libation to John Barleycorn. Other celebrations are likely to be rather more riotous. I urge restraint (though not necessarily in the Bambaduza department). Avoid any possibility of interaction with the Fuzz. I mean walk or take a taxi. Meanwhile, to quote the Immortal Rabbie Burns:
And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o' thine,
And we'll tak a right guid willie-waught
For auld lang syne!
A happy and prosperous New Year to all of you!
Tailpiece
NEW YEAR'S Resolution for 2012 – no more wine, women and song.
Wine? I prefer whisky anyway.
Women? I didn't say anything about girls.
Song? Nor did I say anything about the saxophone.
Another tough and challenging year lies ahead.
Last word
When I remember by-gone days
I think how evening follows morn
So many I loved were not yet dead
So many I love were not yet born.
~ Ogden Nash
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