Christmas in Scotland

August 5
Though Scotland has few deeply established Christmas traditions, they do have many superstitions about the end of the year. Divination was once widespread during the holiday season with rituals centered around the family hearth. The luck to be found in the New Year is divined by reading the signs in the ashes after a Christmas Day fire. A foot shape facing the door foretells a death in the family, and a foot facing the room means a new arrival. Another custom is to carve an old woman from a piece of wood. She is named Cailleach, the Spirit of Winter. She is burned in a ritual symbolizing the end of bad luck and a fresh start for the New Year.