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Show I ; Scotch Customs Brought to U. S. "Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?" There may be no way of proving whether or not Robert Burns was thinking of New Year's Eve when he wrote "Auld Lang Syne"; however, how-ever, two things are certain: the Scotch have always made a big fuss over New Year's and no American celebration thereof would be complete com-plete without this traditional bit of Scottish verse. In Scotland, the wassail bowl went round at New Year's time. Traditionally, Tradi-tionally, the custom originated when Rowena, daughter of Hengist, presented pre-sented Prince Vortlgren with a bowl of wine and the salutation, "Lord King, wass-hael," or literally, "To your health." The prince drained I the bowl with one draught returned the maiden's salutation by immediately immedi-ately falling in love with her, and the two lived happily ever after. The wassail bowl itself was an ornament of graceful design decorated deco-rated with branches of greenery that . formed a canopy over it The mixture mix-ture within was warm and included ale, sugar, and nutmeg or ginger; highly spiced, sweetened wine was added by hosts who could afford it On New Year's Eve at the stroke of 12 the head of the household, toasting his family and friends, sipped the mixture and then passed it to the others present Sometimes, the party would pile Into a wagon or sleigh and, carrying kettlefuls of the beverage, buns, cheese, etc., would stop at various houses throughout the community. The refreshments went around at each "stop" and nobody got home till morning. |