Butterflies, boils and other new year beliefs
All around the world, New Year's Eve celebrants have adopted the Scots tradition of greeting in the new year with rousing renditions of 'Auld Lang Syne'.
LOOK out for a white butterfly when the new year arrives as it will bring you luck if it is the first one you see.
This strange belief is but one of so many superstitions and traditions surrounding the new year celebrations. While some do have a sort of logic others, like the butterfly one seem to be without explanation, their origins lost in the mist of time.
For instance, changing your underwear on New Year’s Day is said to give you boils! Now, where on earth does that come from?
Much of the superstition seem to be efforts to ensure that the year ahead will be a good one. We eat, drink and be merry as a means of ensuring the year will be one of plenty, so when midnight strikes make sure you have something delicious to nibble and a drink at hand to toast the new year.
As for kissing those we love, this is not just a gesture but a way of ensuring their lasting affection for the next 12 months. Noisy celebrations and firework displays also have a purpose. They are designed to chase away agents of bad luck.
If your go into labour on New Year’s Day, be grateful. Any baby born on this auspicious day can look forward to a happy, lucky life.
All around the world, New Year’s Eve celebrants have adopted the Scots tradition of greeting in the new year with rousing renditions of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, a song based on the poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Usually it is sung in a circle of linked arms just after the clock strikes twelve.
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