“Long may your chimney reek!”  If your chimney smokes that means you’re probably burning coal and you’re not poor.

Because of religious reasons, the celebration of Christmas may be something relatively new to the Scottish people but New Years is another story. It’s no accident that Robert Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne back in 1788 to celebrate ringing in the new and remembering old kindnesses and friendships. I was researching traditional Scottish dishes for Christmas and they’re not so different than ours (roast goose, venison, turkey) but their New Year’s menus sound like they’re from another world.

Hogmanay is celebrated all over Scotland with a variety of dishes. I can’t imagine going to  a restaurant and ordering mince and tatties, rumbledethumps, neeps, stovies and white pud with a straight face. I found a terrific site that lists recipes for all kinds of traditional Scottish dishes. The recipes are very workable and once you get past the names, not so different than what we eat here which comes as no suprise considering that the culture is Scots and Scots Irish.

http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/

All the traditions of the Scots New Year, Hogmanay, are explained on the following site. Fascinating!

http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/hogmanaycustoms.php