Interlude: another German New Year's Eve tradition

JD presents Hogmanay!

A guid New Year to ane an` a` and mony may ye see!

While New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world, the Scots have a long rich heritage associated with this event - and we have our own name for it, Hogmanay.

There are many theories about the derivation of the word "Hogmanay". The Scandinavian word for the feast preceding Yule was "Hoggo-nott" while the Flemish words (many have come into Scots) "hoog min dag" means "great love day". Hogmanay could also be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month, or the Gaelic, oge maidne, new morning. But the most likely source seems to be the French. "Homme est né" or "Man is born" while in France the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged was "aguillaneuf" while in Normandy presents given at that time were "hoguignetes". Take your pick!

In Scotland a similar practice to that in Normandy was recorded, rather disapprovingly, by the Church. "It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane." Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693.

Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years. (I think it became a public holiday round about 1960.) The reason for Christmas not being celebrated has its roots in the Protestant Reformation when the Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore had to be banned. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was therefore at New Year when family and friends gathered for a party and exchange presents, especially for the children. There are traditions before midnight such as cleaning the house on 31st December (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common). There is also the superstition to clear all your debts before "the bells" at midnight. (I wonder how many people still try to clear their debts!)

An integral part of the Hogmanay partying, which continues very much today, is to welcome friends and strangers, with warm hospitality to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out the vestiges of the old year, have a clean break and welcome in a young, New Year on a happy note.

"First footing" (that is, the "first foot" in the house after midnight) is not as common as it used to be in Scotland. To ensure good luck for the house, the first foot should be male, dark (believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) and should bring symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and whisky. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread are the only items still prevalent and very welcome they are!.

And of course it has become traditional to overindulge and wake up the following day with a 'sair heid'. -

My New Year's Resolution

... is never to open the pages of the MoS' "You" magazine:

It's so easy to deconstruct, isn't it? A manufacturer's freebie, or something bought on expenses in a hurried cabbed trawl through West End shops, or even worse, a sponsorship.

Just don't tell us that "we" paid for it out of her own pocket or intends to continue using it, especially at that you-really-are-silly-aren't-you price.

A touchstone for the whole bloated, false-valued paper. If it wasn't for Peter Hitchens I shouldn't bother at all.

A German NYE tradition - divining the future by molten lead

We used to do this in Germany. The lead came formed into the shape of common objects, a bit like the old Monopoly player pieces. The result was always a frazzled lump in the bottom of the washing up bowl.

Started in Greece with tin-smelting, they say - so maybe dates back to the Bronze Age?

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molybdomancy.

On The Sixth Day Of Christmas

Earliest (photographed) snowman was Welsh!

"Earliest known photograph of a snowman. Wales, circa 1853"
Htp: Tumblr here

Photo taken "by Welsh photographer Mary Dillwyn, the original of which is in the collections of the National Library of Wales." 

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowman#History

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas

FRIDAY MUSIC: Merry Claudemas! - by JD

It's that time of year, after the joy of Christmas and before the great joy of Hogmanay, a time to wind down and look for some calming tranquility. What better way to relax than with the music of Debussy. The third video is very fitting as we are currently 'enjoying' the latest episode in the global warming saga.

On The Fourth Day Of Christmas

On The Third Day Of Christmas

Thought For The Day: Bitcoin

Is Bitcoin really better than money, or is it just a Dunning-Krugerrand?

On The Second Day Of Christmas

On The First Day Of Christmas

- that chimes with the family's-home theme, but JD suggests this alternative:

Silent Night - for three minutes

Image source: Google News

A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas

MUSIC: JD's Third Christmas Collection

Nollaig Chridheil gu h-uile agus Dia a 'beannachadh

sìth air an talamh agus deagh rùn dha na fir uile *

* A wonderful Christmas and God bless you

   Peace on earth and goodwill for all men

MUSIC FOR CHRISTMAS: JD's Second Collection

FRIDAY MUSIC: JD's Christmas Collection - Part 1

"Feliz Navidad!"

Thought for the day: inequality

http://uk.businessinsider.com/economist-intelligence-unit-downgrades-united-states-to-flawed-democracy-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

"Scheidel’s book* shows that historically, the only way high inequality has been flattened has been through catastrophe: disease, famine, world war, societal collapse or communist revolution."

- Quoted in "Evonomics": http://evonomics.com/inequality-predicts-homicide-rates-better-variable/

Is there another way?.

_______________________________
*Walter Scheidel, "The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century", Princeton, January 2017

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10921.html

Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (428)

Wiggiatlarge in the comments at Broad Oak Magazine:

"The author of this has been on a mission to implement LVT as the prefered method of tax, he is entitled to his view, but no tax is perfect and many far more qualified than myself have taken apart aspects of LVT on his site, the author also rather spoils his pitch by using phraese like "homies" as a derogatory term for all home owners (1) and feels for some strange reason that anyone who has a garden (2) should bear the sins of mankind (3), all rather strange."

1. That's a deliberate misinterpretation of what the term means. As I have pointed out many a time, "Home-Owner-Ist" does not mean owner-occupier. Not all owner-occupiers are Home-Owner-Ists; indeed not all Home-Owner-Ists are owner-occupiers.

I am an owner-occupier and I guess most Land Value Taxers are. "Home-Owner-Ist" is my catch-all term for:
- people who celebrate high and rising house prices;
- NIMBYs;
- people who think that "land and buildings" is synonymous with "property";
- people who say that income tax or poll tax is fairer than LVT without realising that they are two extremes and that LVT combines the best aspects of those taxes without their worst aspects;
- people who cheerfully say that the value of land is dictated by its location, location, location while denying the existence of the concept of 'community generated land value';
- people who genuinely believe the 2008 recession was caused by Labour government deficit spending and not by the land price/credit bubble bursting
- etc.

2. Anybody who thinks that Land Value Tax is a 'garden tax' has no grasp of reality. It is a charge based on the value of a location. Anybody can look this up for themselves - in the UK, the average value of a flat is approximately equal to the average value of a semi-detached house with a garden. So clearly, the size of your garden barely matters, it all depends where your garden (or home) is.

3. Who said anything about 'bearing all the sins of mankind'? Does he think that people who go to work (and pay income tax) should 'bear all the sins of mankind'?

The value of any bit of land is down to the extra advantages you can enjoy by occupying that location, location, location. There are thousands of factors, but a major one is being within easy commute distance of a decent job or having lots of potential workers and customers within easy commute distance of your business. And what you are paying for is the right to exclude all others from doing your job or taking your workers/customers; so you are placing a burden on them equal and opposite to the value you are enjoying. Sure, people can commute in from further away and do a similar job, but that extra commute time is a burden for the other person; similarly, there are people who live closer to your place of work than you do; they are placing a burden on you.

Therefore, it seems fair and reasonable to me for people to pay compensation (i.e. LVT) accordingly, and for everybody to receive an equal share of the compensation paid by all other land owners (whether that is in terms of public services or a straight cash payout).

There's no point bleating that "I paid for it and it's my land and therefore shouldn't have to pay further compensation", you are still placing a burden on others. What if I move in next door to you and listen to music at top volume all night long? I'm clearly placing a burden on you, and you wouldn't be too happy if I argue that "I've paid for my sound system and CDs and have no duty to minimise or mitigate the burden I place on you".