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Show New Year's Eve Festive Occasion For Native Scots Christmas never aroused much enthusiasm in Scotland but on New Year's eve the Wassail bowl goes around, filled with savory liquid, nostalgically nos-talgically fragrant. Floating atop the Wassail bowl, apples stir memories of the "apple-howling" "apple-howling" when , boys switched the trunks of fruit trees petitioning "a good howling crop": somehow, the "lamb's wool" (as the decoction of the Wassail bowl is often called) seems reminiscent of young folks rushing to the nearest spring at the stroke of 12 to drink the "cream of the well" the first one so doing, might expect good luck during the ensuing year. Handsel Monday the Monday after aft-er New Year's, is traditionally the "big Day" for Scotch boys and girls: and, in addition to being the Scotch day of gift-giving, it is a day of feasting and gaiety. Small wonder, that families and friends gather on New Year's eve to "Drink a cup of kindness yet For Auld Lang Sync." |