Category: Holidays

Happy 2019!

First Foot

  In Scottish folklore, the first-foot is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year’s Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. Although it is acceptable in many places for the first-footer to be a resident of the house, they must not be in the house at …

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Hogmanay Fireballs!

  Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year’s Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. The …

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Happy St. Andrew’s Day!

  In Scotland, and many countries with Scottish connections, St Andrew’s Day is marked with a celebration of Scottish culture with traditional Scottish food, music and dance. Schools across Scotland hold special St Andrew’s Day events and activities including art shows, Scottish country dancing, lunchtime Ceilidhs, dance festivals, storytelling, reciting and writing poems, writing tall …

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Happy Thanksgiving!

  Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada and the United States as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Several other …

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Day 26: 40 Days of Thankfulness

Giving thanks to our Veterans today   I’m not sure how Veterans Day turned into a holiday and a day to sell stuff, but then, most every holiday has turned into a day for stores to run “sales”.  Possibly, the original intent was to give our veterans a break but it has sure morphed away …

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Armistice Day

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice that ended fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had eliminated Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the war. Also known as the Armistice of Compiègne from the place where it …

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Day 19: 40 Days of Thankfulness

  Today I am thankful for my dog, Mimi. She’s a beautiful dog, sweet, loving and usually very mild-mannered, but she’ll bark her head off whenever she hears someone in the driveway.   Tonight, she barked at potential trick-or-treaters and we have lots of candy left over.    Thanks, Mimi!  

Stay Safe Out There!

     

Scotland Invented Halloween :)

IT SOUNDS like a bold claim to make, but evidence suggests that, if not for Scotland, Halloween would not exist – at least not as the world knows it.In medieval times, the 31st of October was the last day of the old Celtic calendar.   Scots druids referred to it as Samhuinn, a term which …

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