Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
COOLIN, n. A traditional custom of great antiquity practised in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland on Hogmanay. For the more primitive forms of the ceremony, see J. G. Frazer Golden Bough (1929) 538, Jam.2, and C. I. Johnstone Clan-Albin (1815) I. x. “In modern times it is practised by groups of boys who go round the houses on New Year's Day with open pillow-slips fastened on their backs into which the lady of the house is expected to put cakes, fruit, etc., after the boys have repeated a rhyming story” (w.Rs.4 1938 (adapted)).Sc. 1815 C. I. Johnstone Clan-Albin I. x.:
When every one had eaten of the cake and cheese of the Coolin, and gone through all the ceremonies requisite to prevent the calamities of the expected year, the ball was opened by Norman and Flora Buchanan.
