Guising at Old Christmas and New Year.
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1974.216.A1
Original Tape ID
Summary
Guising at Old Christmas and New Year.
Guisers dressed up and went visiting at Old Christmas and New Year. Hugh Jamieson recalls when the guisers gathered and prepared at a certain house in Mossbank. They visited houses in Swinister, Firth and Toft. There might have been 20 or 25 in the crowd and they visited every house. Old people would simply be wished a Happy Christmas while in other houses there would be music and dancing. At Holla in Firth, enough supper was prepared for all the guisers. They'd dance Shetland and Scotch reels on the small floors of old croft houses.
The guisers dressed in home-made outfits with false faces [masks] bought from the shop. The men dressed as women and the women as men. They would dress in wigs and wide skirts, with whiskers made from sheepskins. When the public halls were built, guising took place there. Latterly they travelled by car, but in the old days not everyone could afford even a bicycle.
Item Notes
Old Christmas and Old New Year were the dates according to the Julian calendar, which continued to be used for traditional festivals long after it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in the middle of the 18th century.
Recording Location
County - Shetland
Parish - Tingwall
Island - Shetland Mainland
Village/Place - Gott
Item Location
County - Shetland
Parish - Delting
Island - Shetland Mainland
Village/Place - Mossbank
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good