New Year comes in only a couple days, so Etiquetteer wanted to take a look at some old traditions, some of which could stand a comeback (once the pandemic is over).
Once upon a time New Year’s Day was more celebrated than Christmas, which Etiquetteer rather likes. Victorian families entertained on New Year's Day with an “at home,” what we would call an open house. These took place from noon to 6 PM. Refreshments offered at these gatherings could be light and consist of tea or punch with cookies, or the hostess might present a “groaning board” symbolizing plenty in the year to come. One impressive menu from the 1880s included the following: “Cold turkey, cold ham, chicken, tongue, scalloped oysters, crustless sandwiches, chicken salad, lobster salad, cole slaw, sweet pickles, relishes and condiments, olives, and celery; cakes, pies, ice cream, ices, cookies, petit fours: baskets of sliced cake (fruit, layer, and sponge); nuts, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, lemonade, punch.” Remember the words of the late Billie Holliday: “You can help yourself, but don’t take too much.”
Ladies did not go out on New Year’s Day; they stayed at home and received, while the gentlemen made the rounds to as many houses as they could manage. No invitations were necessary to gain admittance to one of these affairs, since people were expected to “know their places.” As a result, anyone who presented a calling card and was “respectably dressed” was welcome, even in the White House as late as the post-Civil-War era.
Yes, the White House! The New Year's Day reception used to be a very important part of the White House social season, but it would be hard work for the President and First Lady to stand in a receiving line to shake hands with the thousands of people who showed up. Clever First Ladies discovered that they could avoid shaking hands at all by holding a bouquet.
Why don't we have New Year's Day receptions like this any longer? First off, too many strange men kept showing up just to toss off a glass of punch and move on, and second, the Great War and Prohibition changed many social traditions, not just related to the holidays. Gradually New Year's Eve and Christmas took a larger share of the spotlight.
Even while the custom was going on, there were those who wanted to keep alcohol out of it. Dame Curtsey suggested in her Book of Novel Entertainments for Every Day of the Year: “No matter what the custom of the family may be, wines or liquors of any kind should not be served in New Year’s callers. Imagine the condition of a visitor who pays 20 or 30 calls in rapid succession and partakes even of a small quantity in each place. This is a point upon which all hostesses should agree for at least one day in the year. There are many attractive beverages and many dainty things to serve, but only viands of the lightest character should be the rule.”
Many New Year’s traditions are influenced by Scotland, where Hogamanay remains popular to this day. It wsa a custom to bring gifts of bread, salt, coal, and/or whiskey, because those indicated prosperity. And it was especially important for the first person to enter the house in the New Year to bring them; this is the tradition of the First Foot. Back in the day it was considered cheating to have a party guest or a member of the household step outside just before midnight and then come back in again, but nowadays we are more forgiving of that convenient tinkering with tradition. “Blondes foretold trouble,” so tall, dark-haired men were preferred for First Footers. Interestingly, while the custom of the First Foot might lead readers to infer it was a medieval or ancient tradition, it is actually traceable only to 1850 or so, making it an authentically Victorian practice.
New Year’s gifts traditionally exchanged after the first foot were often symbolic of wealth: gilded nutmegs, oranges stuck with cloves, and papers of pins all have clear connections to money and coins. Another tradition tied to the idea of promoting prosperity in the coming year included the belief that a person, no matter how young, should have money in his or her pocket on New Year’s day, or risk poverty.
Among the things that were unlucky on the first day of the year were throwing out ashes (the hearth should be cleaned before midnight on the 31st, so that a new fire could be laid), doing laundry specifically (presumably because this required the throwing out of dirty water), or any kind of work in general. Also unlucky was having the fire leave the house, either in the form of a lantern or candle being carried out, or having the fire in the stove or hearth go out.
The idea of one’s actions at the turn of the year setting the course for the next 12 months seems to be deeply ingrained into many of these traditions and beliefs. It is interesting to think about how they appear to have evolved into a practice of determining one’s own actions by making resolutions. Victorians focused more on predicting events to come than resolving to shape them.
One predictive tradition is that whatever one is doing at the time the bells chime midnight, is what one will be doing for the most part of the new year; this is no doubt in part responsible for the tradition of staying up at least until midnight – lying in bed might predict illness or incapacity. And it would certainly explain the popularity of kissing your beloved at midnight!
Divining the future was an important feature of celebrating the New Year for Victorians, and they used quite a few methods to do so. Reading tea leaves is familiar to us, but the Victorians would also read ashes. Bibliomancy was also popular. This was opening up a book, usually the Bible, and using the first sentence to predict the New Year. Interestingly, predicting the future was engaged in more by the Victorians than setting New Year’s resolutions the way we do, to achieve personal goals or encourage more Perfectly Proper behavior.
However you choose to celebrate the New Year — of course Etiquetteer believes you need to stay up until midnight, but knows that many prefer not to — Etiquetteer wishes you health, safety, prosperity, and of course Perfect Propriety in 2022.