“I wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy New Year,
A pocket full of money,
And a cellar full of beer,
And a good fat pig
To serve you all the year.
Ladies and gentlemen
Sat (sic) by the fire,
Pity we poor boys
Out in the mire.”
The Antiquary, 1873, vol. iii. p. 7.
In the neighbourhood of Ross, it is deemed most unfortunate for a woman to enter the house first, and therefore an inquiry is generally made whether a male has previously been there. It is customary for the peasantry to send about on this day a small pyramid, made of leaves, apples, nuts, &c.—Fosbroke, Sketches of Ross, 1822, p. 58.
Lancashire.
Should a female, or a light-haired male, be the first to enter a house on the morning of New Year’s Day, it is supposed to bring bad luck for the whole of the year then commencing. Various precautions are taken to prevent this misfortune: hence many male persons with black or dark hair are in the habit of going from house to house, on that day, to take the New Year in; for which they are treated with liquor, and presented with a small gratuity. So far is the apprehension carried, that some families will not open the door to any one until satisfied by the voice that he is likely to bring the house a year’s good luck by entering it.
The most kindly and charitable woman in a neighbourhood will strongly refuse to give any one a light on the morning of New Year’s Day, as most unlucky to the one who gives it away.—Harland and Wilkinson’s Lancashire Folk-Lore, 1867, p. 214.
Isle of Man.
On this day an old custom, says Train in his History of the Isle of Man (1845, vol. ii. p. 115), is observed called the quaaltagh. In almost every parish throughout the island, a party of young men go from house to house singing the following rhyme:
“Again we assemble, a merry New Year
To wish to each one of the family here,
Whether man, woman, or girl, or boy,
That long life, and happiness, all may enjoy,
May they of potatoes and herrings have plenty,
With butter and cheese, and each other dainty;
And may their sleep never, by night or day,
Disturbed be by even the tooth of a flea;
Until at the Quaaltagh again we appear,
To wish you, as now, all a happy New Year.”
When these lines are repeated at the door, the whole party are invited into the house to partake of the best the family can afford. On these occasions a person of dark complexion always enters first, as a light-haired male or female is deemed unlucky to be the first-foot or quaaltagh on New Year’s morning. The actors of the quaaltagh do not assume fantastic habiliments like the mummers of England, or the guisards of Scotland, nor do they, like these rude performers of the Ancient Mysteries, appear ever to have been attended by minstrels playing on different kinds of musical instruments.