first foot v. to be the first person to enter a house on New Year’s morning

First footin, or first fittin, is traditionally, if loosely, associated with the bringing of good (or bad) fortune to a household for the year ahead. Yet ‘traditions’ are not always as old as we might suspect, and often have their own methods of evolving. A mass first footin in Edinburgh, noted by The Scotsman in 1852, was ‘initiated by ... a large crowd in the neighbourhood of the Tron Church, who raised an uproarious cheer as the clock announced the hour of twelve’.

The first footer should arrive equipped with suitable gifts, symbolising health, joy and good fortune. For my family this usually includes whisky, shortbread and a piece of coal, though this last item, and another traditional gift, salt, are less frequently given nowadays. For some black bun is essential. Florence McNeill lists its ingredients in her Scots Kitchen (1929): ‘blue raisins, currants, sweet almonds; orange, lemon, and citron peel; flour, Demerara sugar, ground cloves or cinnamon, ground ginger, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, baking soda, buttermilk or eggs, brandy; crust: flour, butter, water’.

Some of the quotations for first foot in the Dictionary of the Scots Language www.dsl.ac.uk explore the vexed question of who may provide your New Year blessing or curse. In R. H. Cromek’s Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (1810), it is claimed that ‘Much care is taken that the persons who enter be what are called sonsie folk, for on the admission of the first-foot depends the prosperity or trouble of the year’. Tall, dark (and preferably handsome) men are often thought to bring good luck. Robert Ford’s Humorous Scotch Readings (1881) describes one poor unfortunate, ‘a fair-hair’d, flet-fitted man, an’ therefore, an unlucky first-fit’. While such quotations may conjure images of canny Scots keeking anxiously through the curtains, traditional New Year hospitality usually mitigates against such superstitions.

This week's Scots word was written by Dr Maggie Scott.

This week's word is spoken by Alasdair Allan MSP. From the Scottish Borders, Alasdair currently represents the Western Isles in the Scottish parliament.