Scotland has a unique national customs, rolling mountains and lakes, rich history and culture, and a changing climate. In the spring, there are newborn lambs jumping and murmuring, awakening the silence. In the elegant ancient town, in the summer, there is the noisy Edinburgh immersed in the joy of the art festival. In the autumn, there are deep lakes reflecting the colorful woods and mountains of heather. In the winter, there are snow-capped mountains here. The snow-capped mountains and green grassland complement each other. There are boundless, beautiful highland scenery and unique ethnic customs here. The men here wear the coolest dresses and play high-pitched bagpipes to take you into the past. There are countless castles and palaces here that tell the story of battles and legends, romance and sorrow.
Although it belongs to the United Kingdom together with England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the Scottish nation retains its own culture and traditions—colorful plaid, which men are proud of. plaid skirt (kilt) and high-pitched Scottish bagpipes (bagpipes). Scots are warm and welcoming, just like the rich, rich and prestigious Scotch whiskey. There is also an education system and outstanding universities established 500 years ago. From here the industrial revolution was promoted - the invention of the steam engine, from which countless lives were saved - from here the invention of penicillin, from here the ideal city was born, from here the theory of rich countries was conceived, from here Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter became vivid characters , the history and beauty here have been put on the Hollywood screen again and again. Scotland is located in northern Europe to the northwest of the island of Great Britain, which is also the seat of the United Kingdom. Scotland was an independent country in history, and even after its merger with England, it retained a great deal of independence and a distinct national tradition. A country's geographical conditions always have a certain relationship with its historical development, and the Scots are particularly outstanding in this regard. The unique natural conditions have allowed the Scots to maintain a small population and open land, and have also allowed the Scots to maintain their bagpipes and kilt as well as their independence and pride.
The northwest of Scotland is the famous Scottish Highlands, with majestic and magnificent natural scenery: landforms left over from the Ice Age, rugged mountains, exquisite lakes and boulder-covered fields. The clear streams here provide important raw materials for Scotch whiskey, a traditional specialty of the Highlands. There are not many towns in the southeastern Highlands and are known as the tourist centers of the Highlands. There are majestic mountains, beautiful valleys, tranquil lakes, rushing streams and heather fields. Although the southern part of Scotland is mountainous, it is far from as unruly as the Highlands. The terrain here is similar to that of northern England. It is an area with gentle terrain and quiet environment. There are grassy hillsides and spacious valleys hugging tranquil streams.
Before 1707, Scotland was once an independent kingdom, occupying about one-third of the land area off the northwest coast of Europe and the northern part of the island of Great Britain. Although Scotland is under the jurisdiction of the British Parliament at Westminster in London on matters such as foreign affairs, military, finance, and macroeconomic policies, it has a certain degree of autonomy in internal legislation and administrative management, and also has a dedicated issuance authority. Some currency versions are under the United Kingdom, second only to England in size.
Traditions of seeing off the old and welcoming the new There are many traditional customs in Scotland from New Year's Eve to New Year. Customs before midnight included cleaning the house on December 31st (and dumping the ashes of the coals in an era when coal burning was common). There was also a superstition that all debts had to be paid off before the clock struck midnight. After midnight, it is tradition to sing "For Auld Lang Syne" by the famous poet Lobert Burns:
"How can we forget our old friends?" , can you not think about it in your heart?
How can old friends forget each other? Friendship lasts forever.
Long live friendship, my friend, long live friendship!
Toast a toast and drink together and sing the song "Auld Lang Syne"! "
Should auld acquaintance be forgotten and never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintance be forgotten and auld lang syne
For auld lang syne,my dear,for auld lang syne,
We'll take one cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
A major part of the New Year's Eve celebrations will last for several days and is hospitality Hospitality for friends and strangers alike
The first guest to visit the host's house after midnight becomes the "first footing": a visitor who is sure to bring good luck to the host's house. The first guest should be a man with dark hair (from the past Viking times, when a stranger with blond hair crossing the threshold of your house means trouble is coming), and he should symbolically bring some coal, Shortbread, salt, black buns and whiskey.
To this day, the only gifts people can find may be butter shortbread and whiskey.
Ancient Scottish wedding customs: The wedding customs of the Scots have also experienced many changes with the changes in history. We can still see traces of some traditional customs in modern Scottish weddings, but there are some traditions that have ceased to exist for many years that are more interesting.
In Barra Island, people sprinkle water on the wedding bed to bless the couple. On Mull, the bride and groom are expected to sleep in the stables on their wedding night. In Lewis, couples must stay with their parents for a week before returning to their own homes.
Celtic customs, which originated from pagan rituals, have been part of wedding ceremonies for many years. The bride and groom tear apart their tartan shawls and tie them together to symbolize the union of the two families.
According to Gaelic tradition, it is unlucky to get married in May or when the moon is waning.
In Aberdeenshire, "blackening" is still a very popular traditional custom. The engaged groom and bride may be caught by a group of "friends" one night, then covered with honey, feathers, soot and other things, and forced to parade around the village or bar. People who have been blackened often take days to clean off.
Sewing hair to the hem of a wedding dress for good luck and dripping blood on the inseam of a dress are some of the interesting but no longer popular customs. The bride is not allowed to wear a very ornate or complicated dress before her wedding day. To accommodate this custom, some of the ruffles on the wedding dress are not sewn on until the last minute.
When the bride leaves home for the last time as a single girl, she should step out of the house with her right foot first, which is more auspicious.
Modern Scottish wedding customs: Modern Scottish weddings are much the same as American weddings. But a traditional Scottish wedding will have melodious and ethereal bagpipe music and an altar gorgeously decorated with Scottish tartan, which will leave an indelible impression on the bride and groom and all the people attending the wedding.
The engagement ring remains a symbol of the marriage vows. 54% of brides choose diamond rings as engagement rings. 91% of British couples choose to hold their wedding in a church, while only 4% choose a marriage registry to witness their union. Another 5% of people will hold their weddings at home, hotels or castles.
Engagement Ceremony For the lively Scots, weddings are a good opportunity to have fun. And such grand celebrations often start with the engagement ceremony. The engagement ceremony can be held at the parents' house, with both parents attending, or it can be held in a nightclub with some guests invited, or it can be held in a village hall, with the whole village witnessing the engagement ceremony.
On the eve of the wedding, the groom will attend a farewell bachelor party (Stag Party, this party is only for men) with friends. Such gatherings are often filled with jokes and many local customs. In Fife, the custom of foot washing continues to this day, but only a groom with a good sense of humor can endure the entire process. The process involves the groom sitting in a tub filled with water while his friends take off his socks and smear a mixture of grease, soot, etc. on his legs. This is to wish the groom good luck in his future marriage.
The bride’s bachelor party (Hen’s Night) is also held on the eve of the wedding. The bride is often dressed up with balloons and streamers by her friends, covered in flour and soot, and paraded through the streets for a week. The procession is often accompanied by the sound of clanging pots and pots, as well as bells and whistles, to ward off evil spirits. In many places in Scotland, friends of the bride will hold a jar so that people can throw coins into the jar as a sign of good wishes to the bride. It was also a way to fund a wedding reception—today, some brides can even get more than $100 in credits this way.
Wedding dress When holding a wedding, Scottish brides often wear white or cream wedding dresses. The groom's relatives and friends and the bride's father will all wear a very grand set of traditional highland costumes sewn from their respective families' Scottish tartans. The bride may also wear a horseshoe on her arm to wish for good luck; the bride may also have a horseshoe presented to her by a flower girl when she arrives at the wedding venue. It is a very common custom for a bride to have something in her outfit: "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." Of course, the so-called "new" naturally refers to the bride's wedding dress. And this dress will become something "old" or "borrowed" for the next generation's wedding. The bride will also wear a blue garter (symbolizing "love"). In addition, in some places in Scotland, it is also a traditional custom to put a silver coin in the bride's shoe, which is said to bring good luck.
A general white wedding will have about three bridesmaids, a little girl holding a bouquet, and a little boy wearing a kilt. Both children are about three years old.
The boy's job is to go up and hand the horseshoe to the bride as she takes the groom out of the church. There is usually a bagpiper present who leads the couple from the church to the waiting car. When the car is driving, the groom will throw many silver coins out of the car, and the children will pick up these silver coins as a symbol of good luck. The usual Scottish wedding starts at 4 o'clock, followed by a banquet and a congratulatory speech at 5 o'clock. The dance starts at 7:30 and will last until the early morning.
Kilt: Wearing a kilt
Today's Scots regard kilt as a formal dress or a dress worn only to participate in celebrations. Usually they wear kilts for weddings or other formal occasions, but a small number of people wear them as casual wear. Kilts are also used by the Boy Scouts as a costume during military parades, and people can also see people wearing kilts at Highland Games, various bagpipe band competitions, country dances and ceilidhs.
Kilts have become common wear for many formal occasions, such as weddings, and can be worn by people of any nationality and origin to these events. Although short skirts are still worn with white dresses, the more common Highland dress is paired with black dresses.
The prototype of the kilt is feileadh mor in Gaelic, which means big kilt in English. It is an uncut garment, about 5 meters long, that is wrapped around the body and tied with a belt around the waist to cover the body. The part below the waist is similar to the current kilt, but the part above the waist is made with pins on the shoulders to create a pleated effect. According to records, in 1715, the British government adopted an open policy and allowed people from England and Scotland to trade with each other. Tom? Rawlinson was one of the businessmen who benefited from this and went north to seek gold. He opened a charcoal painting factory in northern Scotland, and the kilt became a durable uniform among his workers. The traditional Scottish dress KILT originally included a wide shawl, and the shawl and skirt were integrated into one. Since cutting down trees is inconvenient, Tom? Rawlinson asked the tailor to cut the KILT in two, and the kilt was "born". But the Scots believe that as early as 1692, locals were wearing short skirts made of two pieces of wide cloth sewn together and wrapped around the waist. Tom Rawlinson's invention was obviously a "pirated copy." There are also historical records that show that as early as 1624, the Scottish army used kilts as their military uniforms. After the defeat of James II and his supporters at the Battle of Cullenton in 1746, kilts and other Highland attire were banned. However, the kilt survived that extraordinary period, as the Highland regiments of the British Army still followed the dress.
Modern kilts are made of up to 8 meters of fabric stapled together at the waistline, forming thick pleats on the back and sides. Fashion designers have even experimented with non-tartan materials, including leather, to make kilts to appeal to more consumers. In the early 2000s, several kilt-making companies, including Utilikilts, Sport Kilt, NeoKilt, Pittsburgh Kilts, and Kilt2, began producing garments that did not use Scottish tartan but were still called kilts. Their products often have some modifications to the traditional kilt, such as pockets, symmetrical pleats, low waists, etc. One of the selling points of this kilt is that people do not need to be of Scottish ancestry to wear kilts. The second selling point is that it is relatively cheaper for those of Scottish descent.
The Scottish plaid skirt originated from an ancient garment called "kilt". This is a short skirt from the waist to the knees, made of tweed, with large continuous squares on the fabric, and the squares should be clearly displayed. In the eyes of the Scots, "Kilt" is not only the national costume they love to wear, but also a symbol of Scottish national culture. After the union of Scotland and England in 1707, the "Kilt" was retained as Scotland's national costume. The Scots wore this skirt to express their resistance to English rule and their strong desire for national independence.
In 1745, after the British Hanoverian Dynasty suppressed the armed uprising of the Scots, they issued the famous "skirt ban" in British history, which prohibited Scots from wearing skirts and could only use English dress as the standard. Violators will be punished by imprisonment or banishment. The Scots fought for more than 30 years, and finally forced the Hanover dynasty to lift the "skirt ban" in 1782 and won the right to wear skirts. A set of Scottish national costumes includes: a knee-length tartan skirt, a matching vest and tweed jacket, and a pair of long knitted thick socks. The skirt is fastened with a wide leather belt, and a large waist bag is hung below, hanging in the center of the front of the tweed skirt. Sometimes a plaid blanket is draped diagonally over the shoulders and held on the left shoulder with a clip.
In the eyes of foreign tourists, there is not much difference between the plaid skirts worn by Scottish people, but in fact this is not the case. Although the fabrics used are all in checkered patterns, each has a different design. Some have bright red as the main base, with black and green stripes on the top; some have dark green as the base, with light green stripes on the top. Some grids are smaller and some are larger. Some are bright and some are elegant.
In the past, each design was officially registered and could not be used casually among various ethnic groups. But as time goes by, there are more and more styles of this kind of checkered skirt, and it is estimated that there are more than a thousand kinds. Today, whenever residents of the Scottish Highlands have a festive gathering, they always put on beautiful checkered skirts, cloaks, high black fur crowns, a white feather on the left side, and a black and white ornament on the waist. Wearing white shoe covers, short woolen socks, and knee-length trousers, they played the cheerful bagpipes and danced the "Cintrub Haas", and a strong Scottish national custom came to their faces.
Scottish Highland Sports
Scottish Highland Sports refers to an event held in Scotland that best embodies the spirit of Scotland. This event has a long history and has been held for 153 times as of 2006. This traditional highland sport has a unique charm because it combines dancing, drinking and gourmet food that allows players to fully demonstrate their skills. Scotland has contributed many inventors to mankind. Watt improved the steam engine; MacLeod discovered insulin; MacAdam invented the gravel road; Thomson and Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire; Bell invented the telephone; Baird invented television. Two major breakthroughs in modern medicine - penicillin and anesthetics were developed by Fleming and Simpson respectively. Adam Smith laid the foundation of modern economics. Golf was also invented by the Scots.
Polaris originated in Scotland in the 14th century, and there are still sharp stones (i.e. curling stones) engraved with the year 1511 in Scotland. In 1795, the first Ice Skating Club was founded in Scotland. In 1838, the Scottish Skating Club formulated the first official competition rules. Ice skating was introduced to Canada in 1807 and became popular in the United States and other places in 1820. Since then, rollerblading has gradually developed as a winter sport in Europe and North America. Equipment for curling includes curling stones, competition shoes and brushes. The curling stone is chiseled from Scottish mica-free granite, with a standard diameter of 30 cm, a height of 11.5 cm and a weight of 19.1 kg.
Currently the best curling stones in the world are made from granite on an island in Scotland. Which company in Scotland makes the best granite curling stones in the world? Stone materials are also becoming increasingly depleted due to the widespread development of this sport, so the price of curling is increasing day by day.