It is hard to stop the festivities of the holidays when Christmas is over. Just like today: the Victorians continued with Victorian New Years Celebrations!
Victorians wanted the New Year to be celebrated well so it starts well. They would wear a new suit of clothing , and always be sure they had a little bit of money in their pockets for prosperity. However, there were a few other bizarre traditions they had tucked up their sleeve:
1. Not let a woman be the first to enter the house on New Year’s Day
Known as the “first-foot” or “first-footing,” this Scottish and Northern England tradition also claimed it was bad luck for a light-haired (depending on the region) a dark-haired man to be the first to enter a home in the new year. Worse was to have a woman be the first to enter. In Shropshire, it was bad luck for women to enter the house before noon.
2. Cleansing the hearth fire
Cleaning out the ashes from the hearth was to be done on New Year’s Eve as a sign of sweeping away the past year and igniting the new year with a new flame. Additionally, you could not leave the house on New Year’s Day holding any kind of flame like a candle or lamp.
3. Clovers and swines all round
As the Victorians did for all special holidays and occasions, postcards were sent to loved ones bearing good tidings. Pigs and clover were considered bearers of good fortune and often featured in the illustrations of New Year wishes.
4. Throw bread at the door on New Year’s Eve
Tossing a loaf of breaf at the door was mainly for “comfortable and wealth homes of the south and midland counties of ireland.” These loaves were called barmbrack. The man of the house took three bites before lobbying at at the door while the household prayed that they would spend the next year warm, well-fed, and healthy.
4. Treat New Year’s Eve like a funeral
When we think of the Victorians, we usually assign a morbid kind of melancholy merit to them. Even on New Year’s Eve, they retained this morose vibe. Poets and preachers treated it like the death of the year. Take Alfred Tennyson’s The Death of the Old Year:
Tis nearly twelve o’clock.
Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we’ll dearly rue for you:
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.
6. Open a Bible at random to tell your future on New Year’s Day
Called as ‘dipping,’ this custom involved throwing open the Bible and blindly pointing to a passage. Whatever the verse said, foretold your future for the following year. Let’s hope no one warns of a coming apocalypse.
7. Divination
Victorians were quite attuned to the mystical and spiritual realm. They would playfully predict one another’s fortunes for the new year by interpreting each other’s tea leaves and engaging in bibliomancy as mentioned above!
8. Play the “Resolutions Parlour Game” at the New Year’s Eve party
Victorians weren’t actually humourless bores, they were creative and fun and pretty silly. This game involved writing a resolution for yourself or a fellow player on a piece of paper and folding it up. Each player then drew the resolution and read it aloud. The more ridiculous the resolution, the more laughter ensued. Some suggestions included, “I must stop smoking in my sleep,” and “I must walk with my right foot on the left side.”
9. Find a lover
New Year was the perfect time to host a party and wealthy Victorians would hold open houses, inviting all the local eligible bachelors into their homes to meet unmarried daughters. A night of excitement, socialising, and festivities was likely all the splendour!
10. Phantom balls
Victorians of the middle class would attend what were known as “Phantom Balls.” These were parties which called for ghostly costumes, card games, and even more divination games!
10. Make a disgusting pie
Mince meat pies were a Victorian treat for New Year’s, and some households made a grand gesture called the “New Year’s Pie” where stuffed a boiled cow’s tongue inside a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey stuffed inside a goose. The whole thing is then coated in a jelly made from beef fat.
11. Force someone to ride the stang on New Year’s Day
A medieval custom that survived into the Victorian period, “riding stang” was an act of mob violence in some parts of England in which, on New Year’s Day, a gang would abduct someone and force them to ride a pole (“stang”) to the nearest pub and pay a fine to the crowd in order to be set free. It began as a way to shame and punish criminals or community members thought to be immoral, but by the 19th century became just a bit of New Year’s fun! How jolly!
