Project “The influence of geographical position on traditions and customs of habitants of Scotland”

The secondary compulsory school №87

2. Project

“The influence of geographical position on traditions and customs of habitants of Scotland”

                                        Vladykina Kate

                                        from 11 form B

1. Izhevsk, 2017

Context:

1. Introduction
2. Peculiarities of Scotland’s administrative structure, landscape and culture

2.1. Scotland’s administrative structure

2.2. Landscape and climate

3. Traditions and customs of habitants of Scotland

                        1. Introduction

        Due to the global industrialization people became too urban. We gradually forget our sources. But fortunately now days people in some areas tend to come back to their forefather. This fact can't but bring hope that human being will stops destroy the world it lives in and starts to treat the nature as careful as its forefathers did.

        The geographical position of the place people live has a great influence on their lifestyle and customs. In that case the aim of this work is to examine the influence of the geographical position of Scotland on its inhabitants.

        Scotland on our opinion is a perfect country for such kind of research. Despite Scotland is a highly developed industrial part of the United Kingdom Scottish families keep the culture and traditions of their forefathers very carefully.

1. 2.Peculiarities of Scotland's administrative structure, landscape and climate

2. 2.1 Scotland's administrative structure

        Scotland is an administrative and a political part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It's located in the northern part of the island Britain and some adjoining islands: Gebrid, Orkney and Shetland. Scotland is divided into three regions: Highlands, Lowlands and Southern Upland. The Cheviot Hills is a natural boundary between England and Scotland. Scotland is much smaller than England. Its area is approximately 78.800 square kilometers. Scotland is not far from the Arctic Circle. As a result of its geographical position Scotland is not so densely populated as England. Its population is about 5,2 million people, mostly the Scots speaking English dialect. The Scottish and Irish forms of Gaelic survive in some parts of Scotland, but the official language is English. Most of the population of Scotland is concentrated in Lowlands, Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city,  is an industrial center and an important port, it is not the capital.

        Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland since the XV th  century. The country is divided into countries. Scotland together with its 186 inhabited islands has 33 counties.

2.2 Landscape and climate

Scotland is a mountainous country. The Grampians are the mountains of Northern Scotland. They are pretty high with a lot of cliffs. In some areas the height of mountains is about 1343 meters. Ben Nevis is the highest point of the Grampians. In South Scotland mountains are not so high with flat plateaus and hills. This part of Scotland has plenty of wide valleys along the coast line. Mid-Scotland lowland lies between Highlands in North and Southern Upland. Scotland is rich with lakes and has a wide river network. Heaths are wide spread as well.

Lying in middle latitudes Britain has a mild and temperate climate. The most characteristic feature of Britains climate is its humidity. The country is surrounded by seas. The climate is influenced by the nearness of the sea and Gulfstream. It is never very hot in summer and never very cold in winter. Average temperature in January in Edinburgh is 3,4o C, in July – 14,4o C. In the western part of the country precipitation is about 2000 millimeters, in the east  it's about 700 millimeters. It is impossible to imagine British climate without clouds in the sky, drizzles, showers and rainfalls. Snow doesn't lie on the ground for long except some areas in the North.

1. 3. Traditions and customs of habitants of Scotland

The Thistle - National Emblem of Scotland.

Common throughout the highlands, islands and lowlands of Scotland, the prickly purple thistle has been Scotland's national emblem for centuries. This proud and regal plant, which grows to a height of five feet, has no natural enemies because of the vicious spines that cover and protect it like a porcupine.

There are several different legends that tell how the thistle became Scotland's symbol, but most date from the reign of Alexander III and in particular the events surrounding the Battle of Largs in 1263.

It is often forgotten, that for hundreds of years much of Scotland was part of the Kingdom of Norway. By 1263 however, Norway seems to have had little interest in their former territory, that was until King Alexander III proposed to buy back the Western Isles and Kintyre from the Norse King Haakon IV. The thought of relieving King Alexander of some of his riches and territories appears to have re-kindled Norse interest in Scotland.

Late in the summer of 1263 King Haakon of Norway, now intent on conquering the Scots, set off with a sizeable fleet of longships for the Scottish coast. Gales and fierce storms forced some of the ships onto the beach at Largs in Ayrshire, and a Norwegian force was landed.

Legend has it that at some point during the invasion the Norsemen tried to surprise the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to move more stealthily under the cover of darkness the Norsemen removed their footwear. But as they crept barefoot they came across an area of ground covered in thistles and one of Haakon's men unfortunately stood on one and shrieked out in pain, thus alerting the Clansmen to the advancing Norsemen.

His shout warned the Scots who defeated the Norsemen at the Battle of Largs, thus saving Scotland from invasion. The important role that the thistle had played was recognized and so was chosen as Scotland's national emblem.

The first use of the thistle as a royal symbol of Scotland was on silver coins issued by James III in 1470.

It is said that the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland, was founded in 1540 by King James V who, after being honoured with the Order of the Garter from his uncle King Henry VIII of England and with the Golden Fleece from the Emperor of France, felt a little left out. He resolved the issue by creating the royal title of Order of the Thistle for himself and twelve of his knights, ‘…in allusion to the Blessed Saviour and his Twelve Apostles'. He set up the arms and badges of the order over the gate of his palace at Linlithgow.

The common badge worn by the knights is a cross surmounted by a star of four silver points, and over this a green circle bordered and lettered with gold, containing the motto "Nemo me impune lacessit", "No-one harms me without punishment" but more commonly translated in Scots as "Wha daurs meddle wi me", in the center is the thistle. The badge is normally worn over the left breast.

Here a knife as a detail of the national costume should be mentioned. A real Highlander must carry it in his right stocking. The knife has got a thistle with the topaz. According to Scottish tradition if the Highlander carried the knife from on inner side of his leg it means the announcement of war. People in peace always carry it from an outer side of the leg.

The old country houses, which have their own features in every county, are very picturesque. Depending on availability of building materials in one or another area, the walls of these houses were made of lime plates, or of pebbles, mortar with lime, or from stones because all these building materials are in the territory of Scotland. There are many frame buildings in the country, similar to the town’s buildings. But they gradually become dilapidated and are changed into brick buildings.

Roofs of the country houses, as a rule, rafter, gable, tall and steep, usually tiled, because it’s often rains in Scotland, and water flows down faster from such type of roots and it doesn’t come down into the house. However, there are some houses with thatch on roofs.

Old folk clothes in such a high economically developed country as Great Britain are forgotten long ago. But still there is a national costume in some areas of Scotland. The most original is the full dress of Highlander Gall. It consists of a linen white shirt with turndown collar, a checked skirt till the knees with big pleats (a kilt), a short cloth jacket with a flap, and a plaid, which is put on one of the shoulders. They wear stockings and thick rough shoes with metallic buckles, and put a dark beret with a wide checked cap-band. A kilt and a plaid are made of special checked fabric – tartan, earlier every Scotland had its own colour of the fabric. Since the end of the XVII century these clothes became the uniform of the Scotland Guardian regiments. The national clothes of Scots are made of sheep’s wool because there are a lot of sheep in Scotland. Besides woolen clothes is also very warm. These clothes save from cold, which is characteristic of North countries.

A kilt, a plaid and tartan are considered a national dress of all Scots. Now many boy-teenagers wear kilts, adults wear them when they go to the tourist’s trips, for the national holidays and sport games. Officials of Scottish establishments also wear kilts for official events.

During the every years intensive process of the leveling of the mode of life, food keeps the biggest ethnic stable, some of traditional features of English food are kept till now. Scotland is a Northern country, and the Scots eat a lot of meat to safe from cold. The most popular meat dishes are, for example, roast beef, beefsteaks, which are in menu of the restaurants of all European countries.

However, worker’s families eat meat only for Sunday’s lunch. They eat more fish during the week, which they boil before eating. They also like fried fish and potato (chips), which is often sold and eaten at streets. Scotland is a sea country that’s why fish is not luxury for them. Vegetables make Scottish food more variable, they cook potato, turnip and cabbage more often. They eat a lot of grain dishes. There are many cereals in Scotland thanks to the Gulfstream, which makes its climate warmer. There is almost no breakfast without porridge, wheaten or corn flakes with milk.

The national dish of the Scots, as the all English, is different kinds of puddings. Meat and grain puddings are the second dish, fruit and berries puddings are for dessert. A lot of sweets are eaten in Scotland.

During holidays the food of the Scots is more abundant. Some of traditional dishes are served only on particular holidays. For example, they always cook a plum pudding and a fried goose on Christmas. Tea is a wide spread drink. They drink it for breakfast, after lunch and in the evening. They drink strong sweet tea, as a rule, with milk. Last years, the Scots drink more coffee.

They have its own marriage legislation in Scotland. The clan system, which took place until the XVIII century, influenced into their family tenor of life. The echo of the old tribal system is still kept in their surnames, most of them are Gallic and begin with the word “Mac” (“son” from Gallic). Now in some places of Scotland citizens of one village have one common surname.

Thanks to warm climate in Scotland, town dwellers and villagers spend a lot of time growing flowers. Many Scottish families have their own, often very tiny gardens and kitchen-gardens, where they like to work during their free time.

4. Conclusion

My research shows that the place people live has a real influence on the lifestyle of the inhabitants. During my researching I get many useful skills on working with foreign literature, Internet. I even meet very interesting people from Scotland to know more information for my work. My work inspired me to continue it and add my researching, because this theme is wide and interesting.