'Fun'

My second Scottish History essay this term is entitled 'Was early modern Scotland a fun place to live?'. At first glance this seemed like a ridiculous essay question, possibly a bit of a joke.  But I study Scottish Ethnology and recognised a lot of the books on the reading list, and it looked like a much better option than something on government or politics, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Surely it can't have been that bad?  I mean, there were ballads, fiddle and pipe music, dancing, lots of calendar festivals (religious and otherwise), traditional drama, carnival-style celebrations, poetry...

But having had more lectures on the period, and started the reading, it seems it maybe wasn't quite so great.  After the Reformation, it wasn't exactly fun if you were a Catholic, or suspected of being a witch, or a folk-healer.  And the Presbyterian kirk decided that anything possibly approaching 'fun' (e.g. dancing, music, feasting) was a very bad thing indeed.  Did you know that Christmas wasn't a public holiday in Scotland from 1690-1958?  (The kirk decided there was no scriptural evidence for it, or for other holy days such as Easter, so didn't celebrate it.)  If you were chosen to be the 'abbot of misrule' at celebrations, and accepted the post, you could be either jailed or banished from the realm!  And then, of course, there was the population growth leading to limited opportunities, plus famine and disease (including that old favourite, bubonic plague).  Oh yes, and the fairies, who weren't friendly little Tinker Bells but beings to be avoided, else they might steal your child and replace it with a changeling. (A lot of this came from a wonderful book on calendar customs in Britain, which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the subject - 'The Stations of the Sun' by Ronald Hutton.)

Hmmm, maybe not so fun after all.  I think I'll stick with modern Scotland, it's much more exciting (and the fairies don't seem to cause so much trouble any more).  Our excitement for today was going out for afternoon tea! But that's another story.

Comments

[Livvey K]

I can't believe that Christmas wasn't a public holiday! That definitely sounds like an interesting book to read. I think you must be a useful person to have at pub quizzes!

[Tilly]

I think the fairies often steal my children and replace them with changelings. They swap them back and forth - extremely disconcerting.