Dec 31 is Bonnie Prince Chairlie's Birthday. Let's have a wee dramachie for the lad. Dave

Ironically Charlie's birthday ties in well with Hogmanay. A lot of this nastyness could have been avoided if some had given their all. Qoute from Internet �Christmas Celebrations Banned in Scotland! After the Church Reformation in the 16th century the celebration of Christmas was frowned on by the Kirk which regarded it as a popish festival. "Christmas" is "Christ's Mass" and mass was banned in Scotland at that time! There are records of charges being brought against people for keeping "Yule" as it was called in Scotland. Amazingly, this dour, joy-crushing attitude lasted for 400 years. Until the 1960s, Christmas Day was a normal working day for most people in Scotland. If there is a specifically "Scottish" aspect to Christmas it is that it was not celebrated which is why Hogmanay became so popular.� �It also looked, in the first half of the 20th century, as though Scots might continue to reject popish Christmas because of its unacceptable Church of Rome connections, plus its habit of heavy feasting which was out of line with the ethics of ascetic Presbyterians of the Reformed Scottish Church. Before World War II, most Scots still worked on Christmas Day, shops stayed open, life went on as normal. A miserly two days holiday were given at Hogmanay. Throughout the 1920s and 30s my Dundonian father, and his six brothers and sisters, hung up their stockings for Santa's presents on Hogmanay, not Christmas Eve and their father opened his shop and worked on Christmas Day.� �For most of Scotland, however, the Reformation meant the loss of both religious dedication at Christmas as well as satirical fun and games of the twelve Daft Days which went with it. In 1649, a century after The Thrie Estatis was performed before the king and church, the church's General Assembly banned Christmas and the Daft Days. Abolishing this annual (and only) holiday in the year, church ministers were advised to make checks on their congregations, with special house visits, to make sure everyone was working, and no one cooking up something festive on the stove�. �Of course, the people continued to celebrate, prohibition being a powerful incentive to rebel, and there are stories of those who hid the roast goose under the bed when the minister called. Attention moved, though, to the 'hinner end o' Yule' and to New Year's Night, untainted by the Church of Rome therefore religiously more acceptable to the narrow-minded church hierarchy. What happened was an amalgam of the old festivities of Christmas, Yule and Twelfth Night or Epiphany into what has now become known as Hogmanay. From its early beginnings, and up to the early 20th century, it brought together the forbidden customs from older festivals, and the new celebration took a strong grip on the emotions of the Scottish people, which shows little sign of abating.� [email protected] wrote:Dec 31 is Bonnie Prince Chairlie's Birthday. Let's have a wee dramachie for the lad. Dave ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals

Dave wrote, << Dec 31 is Bonnie Prince Chairlie's Birthday. Let's have a wee dramachie for the lad. >> The Scots in Scotland all get legless at Hogmany so it is not a good day to start a second uprising :-) Ian