Swinging the Fireballs
Stonehaven, Kincardineshire
31 December

They burn the old year out at Stonehaven very dramatically, with swinging fireballs. It is a ceremony that draws everyone in ' the fishing port to the Old Market Cross at the harbour, with pipe band to lift up the spirit. At the stroke of midnight the fireballs are lit, and the swingers whirl the baskets of fire round their heads, keeping well apart. They make a fiery procession up the High Street to the old cannon, then back along the way they came, to the harbour. Some of the fireballs bum for ten or fifteen minutes, some for much longer.

When Stonehaven was a flourishing fishing port, it was a custom enthusiastically carried out by the local fishermen and the fireballs were taken round the port while New Years hospitality was dispensed. As the fishing declined, so the custom became more formalised and developed into an organised procession. By the end of the 1960s there were very few fireballers taking part, but the enthusiasm of a few locals persuaded more and more people to participate, bringing their numbers up again.

The fireballs are baskets made of wire-netting, stuffed with driftwood, pine cones and twigs and attached to a stout length ` of wire with a handle at the end. Before they are lit, they are doused with paraffin. Anyone interested enough can make their own and join in.

Tar Barrels Parade
Allendale Town, Northumberland
31 December

On New Year's Eve in Allendale Town, they see the old year out and the New Year in with a most spectacular custom. The men, all dressed in fanciful attire and known as 'guisers', throng the busy pubs throughout the evening, adding to the conviviality. Shortly before midnight, the pubs turn out into the streets to see the fun. The band strikes up and the guisers, who have now become tar-barrelers, arrive bearing their 'kits' - barrels sawn off near the top and full of flammable materials. These are ignited and the band leads the tar-barrelers briskly round the town to return to the square, where the ceremonial bonfire has been prepared. At the stroke of midnight, the guisers throw the flaming contents of the barrels onto the fire, and the assembled inhabitants and visitors join in the singing of Auld Lang Syne. Thereafter, the guisers busy themselves first-footing around the town.

The tar-barrel parade is at least a hundred years old, though there is no documentary evidence to establish its history before that. It is one of the many fire customs in the north with Viking associations which take us back to the Dark Ages.