Hogmanay fumigate the buildings until it causes sneezing and coughing among the inhabitants. Then all the doors and windows are flung open to let in the cold, fresh air of the new year. The woman of the house then administers 'a restorative' from the whisky bottle, and the household sits down to its New Year breakfast. The Hogmanay custom of singing "Auld Lang Syne" has become common in many countries. "Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem by Robert Burns, based on traditional and other earlier sources. It is now common to sing this in a circle of linked arms that
Culture of the United Kingdom Go?" while "Auld Lang Syne" is sung throughout the English-speaking world to celebrate the start of the New Year, especially at Hogmanay in Scotland. A depiction of a harp was carved out by the Picts (medieval Celts) on the Dupplin Cross, Scotland, circa 800 AD. The Child Ballads, a collection of "English and Scottish Popular Ballads", are ballads of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century. Both Northern English and Southern Scots shared in the identified tradition of Border ballads, such as the cross-border narrative in "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" from 1540. Many ballads