Editor’s note

At the outset, there is one thing you need to know about this issue of Swerve: it represents our final words of 2016. We are not publishing on the next two Fridays—Dec. 30 and Jan. 6.

That means our Going Out section covers events up to and including Thursday, Jan. 12. We will continue to update listings on swervecalgary.com for those deciding what to check out at the upcoming High Performance Rodeo or seeking answers to the somewhat more pressing question of how to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

On that last note, our cover story—“A Child’s Hogmanay in Scotland”—is a reminiscence by Douglas Walker on how the arrival of the new year was marked in his youth. Walker, who turned 90 last summer, immigrated to Calgary in 1952 but, as those who read his story will discover, his memory and opinions of his childhood remain sharp.

Before you dive in to Walker’s piece, however, there are a few things you need to know. For one, there is that word—“Hogmanay”—in the title. Walker says the term was commonly used in his childhood and refers to the celebrations on New Year’s Eve. A quick Internet search proves that the term remains in use in Scotland today, and that there is still no consensus on its etymology, with Norse, Gaelic and Norman French all seeming to have claims on the title.

Regardless of its origins, Hogmanay was the big seasonal celebration in the Scotland of Walker’s youth. “We didn’t go in much for Christmas trees,” he told me when I visited him at the retirement home where he and his wife live. “For one thing, we had an open fireplace, so tinsel and such like were a fire hazard.”

But if Christmas was quiet, it made Hogmanay all the more boisterous. For the children, the celebration came with a few things that might need a bit of explanation. Ginger wine is a non-alcoholic, non-carbonated drink that is extremely sweet. The latter is a quality shared by black bun, another Hogmanay treat, which consists of a fruitcake wrapped in pastry. This will sound somewhat familiar to Canadian ears, but Walker says that our “modern fruitcake is a poor imitation.”

With that, “A Child’s Hogmanay in Scotland” needs no further translation or introduction. I hope you find time to enjoy it over the holidays. We here at Swerve wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we’ll be back in the Herald on Friday, Jan. 13.