Lost Days and Old Christmas
We are nearing the end of this leap year, a year when we have one extra day in February. If you are celebrating Christmas on December 25th spare a thought for the residents of the Shetland island of Foula who will not celebrate Christmas until 6th January. Why would they do this?
It all stems from the changes made to the calendar used in the UK in the 1700s. Up until 1752 the calendar used in Britain was the Julian Calendar. It was based on the solar year (the time it takes for the Earth to rotate around the sun) which meant it was 365.25 days in length. Fractionally too long, over time the calendar fell out of line with the seasons. Nowadays we use the Gregorian Calendar named after Pope Gregory XII who introduced it in 1582. The year corresponds closely with the astronomical year which is 365.24219 days long and this gives us a leap year once every four years. Not all countries of the world adopted the calendar at the same time, in fact it took more than 300 years for the change to be complete.
When the Gregorian calendar was adopted Britain “lost” 11 days as the date jumped from September 2nd to September 14th. There were protests in the streets as people thought that the government had robbed them of eleven days of their lives.
Before the calendar was changed, Christmas was celebrated on the equivalent of the 6th of January according to the Gregorian calendar. That is why in some places people still call the 6th January Old Christmas Day. Today, Foula in the Shetland Islands is one of the last places to celebrate Christmas and New Year on the old calendar dates. While they don’t live by the Julian calendar on a daily basis, the Foula community takes advantage of these special dates to celebrate their strong Norse tradition of folklore and music, with islanders traditionally gathering in one house to celebrate the Old Christmas with traditional music, songs and play guidicks – Shetland dialect riddles.
Old Christmas or Yule takes place on 6th January and New Year on 13th January. In the past Yule celebrations would last 24 days with barn dances and traditions such as playing ba’ – a form of football but seemingly without rules – using a ball made from a pig’s bladder. This was a feature of Yule celebrations until the early 20th century in Shetland. Today in Orkney, the Ba game is still an integral part of the festive celebrations.
Now many Foula residents head to the Shetland mainland to spend “New Christmas” with relatives there, then head back to Foula for their traditional Christmas and New Year in January. Former residents return to the island too. Many Foula emigrants still celebrate Old Christmas where they now live.
Wherever and however you are celebrating we hope you all enjoy the festive break.
By Vivienne Hamiliton
Image by Mariana B.
Get in the festive period with more Christmas blog posts
