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• Handsel
• YULE n Christmas
• Hollin n. holly, a holly tree
• Messan n. a small pet dog, a lap-dog.
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Handsel

“Handsel”

28th December 2008

Handsel

HANDSEL n A gift bestowed to commemorate an inaugural occasion, event or season.

The beginning of the year, the first visit to a friend's new home, the start of an undertaking or even the wearing of new clothes are suitable occasions for a handsel, given with the intention of bringing good luck to the recipient.
You must not ask for a handsel or you may get the rebuke from Kelly’s Proverbs (1721): “I once gave a Dog Handsel, and he was hang’d e’er Night.”. You certainly needn’t expect any good luck.
A suitable gift might be monetary. The Records of a Scottish Cloth Manufactory at New Mills, Haddingtonshire, (1681-1703) show Alexander Weir was ordered “to pay to John Gourlay a doller for his handsell”. It might be consumable: Gallovidian harvesters were welcomed with “their handsel, which consists of as much bread and milk as they can destroy”, according to J. Webster’s General View of the Agriculture of Galloway (1794). It might be frivolous: in 1744, Forfeited Estate Papers published by the Scottish History Society record “Sundry ribbons and gloves given to Miss Sibby and Mr William Fraser's wife as a handsell from my lord”. It might be practical: John Strathesk’s Bits from Blinkbonny (1882) tells us, “She bought Alloa yarn and knitted cosy undergarments...and on New-Year's day...she put into their hands the cosy clothing, saying, ‘That's your hansel’”. A handsel might even be unwelcome: on the 25th of January, 250 years ago, “Twas then a blast o’ Janwar’ win' Blew hansel in on Robin”, as Burns himself later described his birth.
The first Monday of the New Year is known as Handsel Monday and, although I won’t tempt fate by asking for handsel, I look forward to seeing a muckle heap of sponsor-a-word forms on my desk that morning.
A Guid New Year tae ane an aa, fae Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Scottish Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries