A programme of Old Yule
Customs held sixty years ago in Boddam on January 5
Bran Loaves
Aul' Eel Mornin'
The Sailin' o' the Shippies
Ran Dan
Devised by Kathleen M. MacLeod
Advisers, S. Cordiner and M. J. Stephens
Produced by Howard M. Lockhart
This programme, devised by the author of the popular ' Fisher Wedding ', will tell of the Yule-tide customs of an Aberdeenshire fishing village. The bran loaves were baked on New Year's Day, to be eaten at Aul' Eel, January 5, when the people in the village visited one another. On this day, too, an effigy was stuck on the house of the skipper who had landed the smallest catch on the previous day, and great were the efforts made to avoid this ignominy. ' The sailin' o' the shippies ' was a race for models, and ' Ran Dan ' was the celebration held in the village hall. Not so long ago, 'in fact, Aul' Eel was the chief festival in many country districts in Scotland.
In this programme Alan Melville will bring to the microphone several of the Boddam people who took part in the ' Fisher Wedding