Every year without fail, on New Year's Eve, my father used to go out the front door for a short while and then come back in again. I didn’t know why, and I never asked him about it either. But after reading one of his columns recently, I finally think I know now what it was all about. It relates to his own family history, and the best thing for me to do now is to step aside and let you read that column for yourself. Here it is.

At this time of year, old people go down memory lane, because they realize that the years are slipping away from them like the wind, and that another bead on their rosary has passed through their fingers, a bead that will not return, and I suppose that reminds them of their own mortality, if nothing else succeeds in doing so. For my part, I realize that it does a person no good at all to be worried or sad about such matters, for all he can do is apply a poultice of forgetfulness to it, and prepare himself for the new year that is stretching out before him, just as a challenging journey stretches before a pilgrim, enticing and encouraging him forward again.

When I think of this time of year myself, my memory goes back immediately to the place where I was born, in Erris, County Mayo—yes, back to that land that stretches from "Cnocán a’ Líne until you go to Fál Mór." I think, first of all, of that beautiful countryside, with its bare, bleak fields; stubble here, and cut ridges in another place; pools of water over there, and grassy swathes over here; but through it all, everything looked as though the land spread out before you wasn't too fertile, although there was every appearance that any arable land available in the area was being intensely cultivated. Out on the horizon, the islands were anchored firmly in a heaving, rough, volatile sea.

New Year Memories

But, above all else, I think of New Year's Eve, and of the customs and practices associated with that interesting festival.

What are the customs I am talking about?

In the first place, there were the native customs, customs like the New Year's resolutions that were made widely at that time. It was a common topic of conversation among the ordinary people back then. 

"What New Year's resolution have you made for yourself for the coming year?" 

"Well, I have decided to give up this devil of a pipe, that is if God leaves me my health."

Another man or woman would say that they were determined to go to Scotland, to earn a few pennies in the new year, to do this or that. There was another custom among people at that time: getting rid of the dirt of the year that was on its last breath. Yes, they would clean and scrub themselves, so that they would be clean and neat crossing the threshold into the new year. People used not to be willing to spend any money on New Year’s Day, for they believed if they did, they would continue that same habit throughout the year ahead. Oh, I forgot! They had another strange custom back in our midst at that time too, and that was the parade through the town, starting at the stroke of midnight. The young people of the village would gather together first, and anyone who had any musical ability would be there with some musical instrument, and then the music would start and the parade would go from one end of the village to the other, making music and a racket as they welcomed the new year. On their way back, they would go into a house here and there and would be welcomed, and their thirst would be quenched after the fatigue of the marching! 

Foreign Customs

As well as those customs, we also had in our midst some customs that were brought in from abroad.

How did such a thing happen?

Well! At that time, a good number of the local people used to go to Scotland to pick potatoes for the big farmers of that country. They were migratory laborers (spailpíní), and it goes without saying that they didn't live the life of luxury over there. One only needs to mention the "Kirkintulloch Disaster" to drive that home to anyone who spent time as a "Tatie Hoker" over there. But that is not my point, but rather this. Often the potato pickers would stay over for a period after they had finished picking the potatoes. They would go navvying, usually, and so they would be in Scotland for the biggest festival the Scots have, that is, "Hogmanay," or New Year's Eve, and in that way, they picked up the New Year customs of that country. My father spent a good number of years over there during his youth, and so, it was no surprise that special emphasis was placed on "Hogmanay" in our house. The custom of the "First Footer" was the first of those customs that made an impression on me while I was growing up in the west. That was the custom they had of giving a special welcome to the first man who crossed the threshold to them on New Year's Day (Lá Coille). Now, don't think I am saying that a woman would bring misfortune, or bad luck, on a household if she happened to be the first visitor to cross the threshold on New Year's Day, but doesn’t everyone know that this is how things were in the West of Ireland at that time. I saw it myself, with my own two eyes, two fishermen turning on their heels back home because a woman was the first person they met on their way to the sea. That was how the world was at that time. Young men used to take advantage of that custom, and they would go around the village, so that they would be doing quite well [with food/drink] by the time they had completed the circuit of the village. I had a cousin myself, and he had his own custom to welcome the new year. He had an old bottle with no bottom, and around midnight, he would come out to the gable of his house and blow three ear-splitting blasts out of it—blasts that would remind a person of the Barr Bua (Horn of Victory) that the Fianna used to blow long ago—bidding farewell to the old year, and welcoming the new year; a custom, he used to say, that he learned during his youth, and he didn't have the heart to break that same custom for his whole life. We understood that this was a Scottish custom as well.

New Customs

All those customs belonged to a life that is past, mourned, and buried now, but that is not to say that people don't have their own customs in this day and age, for they do, even if they are completely different from the customs they had long ago; but at the same time, you will see that there are similarities between them too. Take for example people blowing their car horns at midnight on New Year's Eve, isn't it like my cousin's custom? And what about the custom of fireworks that are shot up into the sky, and the bells that are rung, to make noise and a racket, to welcome the new year? Are there not similarities between that and the music and racket the youth of our village used to make, long ago, welcoming the new year in their own day? I don't know if anyone makes a New Year's resolution in this day and age, but I'd say there are people who follow that same custom too. But who cares about that, for every one of us has a kind of fear as we hit the road into the fresh territories of the new year. Therefore, at this time of year, I pray for success and happiness for every one of my readers. 

A Happy New Year to you all, and may we all be seven times better a year from tonight. 

Gluais: Bóithrín na smaointe, memory lane;  so-mharfacht, mortality;  talamh cuir, arable land;  ar an gcéad ásc, in the first place;  gleáradh, racket;  Lá Coille, New Year’s Day;  san athbhliain, in the new year;  “Tatie Hokers”, potato pickers.