You know, where someone goes outside just before midnight, with a piece/loaf of bread and a lump of coal, and comes back in right after midnight? My mom used to make my dad do that, back in the day, and I’m told it’s a big tradition in the UK. Snopes calls it “first-footer”, but we never called it anything. My mom said it had to be “the man of the house” who does it. My co-worker says it has to be the “darkest” member of the house. Snopes says it can’t be a blond or a redhead, and it has to be a guy. My mom says her grandmother would also have cleaned the house from top to bottom in preparation, but she’s damned if she’ll go that far, as am I. Anyway, does anyone here do this? (In absence of coal, I’m giving Mr. Rilch my lighter.)
I used to do it for my family, even though I’m female, because I had the darkest hair. We used to prepare a piece of greenery from the outside (can’t remember what that was for now), a stick of wood (for shelter), and a piece of bread (so the new year wouldn’t be one of hunger). We called it First-Footing, after the Scots tradition. It’s part of the reason why I’ve seen New Year’s in by being awake each year ever since I was about 8 years old.