When I was a teenager my grandmother gave me a silver dollar. She said, "Keep this in your wallet and you'll never be broke." I don't know where she got that bit of wisdom, but I still have that coin, 40 years later.
It's a pretty common Italian custom to always have a coin or note in a wallet or purse you give someone. Sort of a wish for them to never have an empty wallet/purse.
In Guelph, Ontario, Canada, the downtown corridor has an anti-vagrancy law essentially. You may not be in the downtown core with less than a quarter on your person. When the law was made, a quarter would've been quite a bit a money. By the time I came around, it was enough to make a phone call at the payphone. Now, it's not even that. xD
So true. But what’s funny to me was I passed up a quarter on the ground the other day. I was carrying a box of booze at the time so I just didn’t think 25 cents was worth it. But 40 years ago when I was a kid, I would have loved to find a quarter!
That vagrancy law was province-wide back in the day. It would have been unenforceable otherwise. By the 70's it was no longer strictly enforced, but IIRC it remained on the books until the mid-80's, when it was finally repealed from Ontario statutes. I knew cops back in the early 80's who would use it as grounds for a "stop & search", even though the violation itself was no longer enforced by the courts.
I want to thank you guys for the inspiration. During these Corona times i have more or less dropped the ball on anything like personal expression. After binge watching your videos i finally put on the kilt to go shopping. I got a sh*tload of compliments ( four or five different people, all female. 😊 ). The fact that i also bought a bottle of scotch ( called ”For Peat’s Sake” ) only made it all the more fun. Again, thank you guys. We need all the soul reingniting we can get right now. 👍🏴🇸🇪
It's tradition of drawing luck. Like most Scottish customs, it's about being prepared to increase your luck. a coin is so you will never be penniless, the handkerchief is do you can provide aide and comfort to others and the flask is to warm you in the cold and again to give aide and comfort to others. Ladies in our family always keep a half dollar in our wallets or put them in our shoes on big occasions when we need luck. it doesn't really matter what you have in your sporran, what matters is that it matters to you. Sometimes practical, sometimes magical, sometimes both
Japanese follow same ‘myth:’ They keep a 5 yen coin (less than a nickel) in wallet, purse or change purse. I believe it is similar to a Scots custom I heard, “Money brings money.” So, if you have a coin permanently in your wallet/purse, more money will come. And, it’s supposed to be good luck. A LOT of wallets & purses sold in Japan actually have a 5-yen coin as part of the ‘package!’ Fun!
I am Scottish, this is a very old tradition that we still do in Scotland, it isn't just in Sporons. There's a tradition that a lady should never buy her own purse and when she receives her purse it should have a Good Luck coin in it, that's why I always buy my mum a purse for Christmas with a coin in it, she won't buy her own purse she waits for someone else to buy it with a coin 😅🤣😅🤣. Also, my mum used to put good luck coins in the Clootie dumpling for the kids to find. So yeah, this is a very old tradition in Scotland, it is not a modern thing at all.
Reminds me of something my grandfather told me (Appalachian). If you ever gift someone a knife, they need to at least trade you a penny in return (even though it’s a gift) or it will bring them bad luck.
When I was growing up in the 1950's and 60's, my Dad would tell me that, "when he was my age", in the 1920's there were men, who were WW I veterans that would carry their National Defense Service Ribbon or, a Campaign ribbon and would be willing to trade it for a cup of coffee. The custom was, in our community, that at the diners near the train depot, these veterans would show their ribbon, trade it for the cup of coffee and then the diner owner or, waitstaff would make some comment like, "Here. Some guy left this behind earlier. If you bump into him on the road, let him have, would you? He earned it."
I rarely leave comments, but I just wanted to say I'm so glad I found your channel! I'm not of Scottish ancestry that I know of (I'd be overjoyed to learn I was!), but had the chance to visit Scotland and Edinburgh way back in 1997, and immediately connected with, and fell in love with, the Scottish culture. I felt like it could have been my second home. I've wanted to go back ever since then and visit for an extended stay, but as they say, life "got in the way." I've already watched a handful of your videos, and am learning so much about tartans, kilts, the culture, etc. It brings back all those good memories of visiting a place you loved years ago, learning more about it, and wanting to return. I just wanted to say you guys, and your entire crew, are doing a wonderful job! Please keep up the videos and spreading the love of all things Scottish and Celtic!
@@USAKiltsOfficial You bet! I just noticed the Scotfest Highland Festival here in Colorado will be in September (hopefully) so that gives me time to learn more and figure out what I'd like to do. As soon as I do, I'll definitely be in touch! :)
Tradition says that when you give someone a purse (a sporran is a purse, face it!) that you put at least a penny in the purse before giving it - along those lines of 'Like Attracts Like'; also it means that you will never be without money because there is a penny in your purse. (Personally, I think a silver dollar would be better!)
Feeding the comment algorithm. Had not heard this before; gonna look through my jar of odd coins I've got once I get home and pick one to keep in each of my sporrans. I don't think I'll store a separate flask in them each permanently but I'll try to have one generally when I'm wearing a given sporran. And the handkerchief thing seems like just good sense.
Hanselling a purse or wallet is an old Scots tradition, based on the belief that gifting an empty purse would bring bad luck or bad prosperity. I'm 61 and I know it predated my great grandmother's time and she was born pre 1900.
Mine is that I carry a "blue ribbon" in my sporran. I had a lady at Renfest in Ohio during the Highland Games weekend one year give it to me after she sang the song for me. Ever since then, whatever sporran I'm wearing it goes right in there. lol
Legit or not, I have now put a British Army Veteran's challenge coin in my sporren. You never know. I also carry a bandage, gauze, super glue and a Swiss Army Knife, telescopic pen magnet and some safety pins!
Well, I'm covered for coins. The sporran on my kilt-shaped purse has several coins and a Pai Sho tile in it. I use the coins to measure hailstones and the Pai Sho tile to hide from the Fire Nation. 😉 Not gonna bother with the flask of whiskey. Even if I did drink, I'd have to get a very small flask to fit in that mini sporran.
Non Scottish, but raised to put a coin in any purse or wallet I gave. Also, 10 cents in your shoe when going out on a date so you could call home. The handkerchief and the flask are new for me. But I suggest they are for medical uses. Should you become injured, the handkerchief is your bandage, and the flask carries your disinfectant. Or if you have a cough or sniffles, you'll need a handkerchief and cough syrup in your flask.
That's funny.. as a child I was always told by my mother to always have a dollar on me (she was almost religious about it) so I wouldn't be picked up for being a vagrant (this was in modern Canada) something about giving legitimacy to being out and around the shops (being able to actually buy somthing)...
You’ve mentioned modern, ancient, muted and weathered kilts and how jackets and hose go with them. what about hunting tartan kilts? My mothers mother and family are Scottish. Masterton. She always had Buchanan modern blanket. I have a Buchanan modern and hunting ties. How would you chose day dress for those two tartans?
it is like having for a bride having an English silver sixpence in the shoe. The bride could save it to leave for brutality and in case a man leaves. From my old Roman civilization history professor, But they were from England. and it is good luck.
As Eric said, all “traditions” had to start with one person and catch on. So anyone should feel okay doing something, and if others cotton to it, that becomes a tradition. I’m all for paying homage to ancestral ways, but that doesn’t mean I won’t pursue my own ideas on what are good ideas. That said, the three items listed (handkerchief, money, and especially a flask) are a great place to start. Improvise from there at will, I say.
Stitch in when making or put if you can, a horse's shoe in your sporran to keep the fairies from doing mischievous things to you, as well as to bring you good health and fertility
I do put a coin in my sporran for good luck. One time I purchase an item from the UK, I ask the vendor to include several Brit coin currency. When I got my item and the coins, I put one in my sporran.
The military challenge coin is not modern. It has been modernized, comes from the Roman Gladiators. Used as a way of self identify to others ( baseball cards of the era ) only given to a select few for honor heroism… etc. there’s a lot more information on this. Too much to put here.
I keep a sixpence coin that my sister gave me for Christmas, £5, 10 Kuwaiti dinar, and $0.35 of AAFES pogs in my wallet, and naturally, I keep my wallet in my sporran! Well, that and a small stack of USA Kilts business cards, of course...
Sounds similar to the wallet superstition of you should always keep a lucky dollar in it, and when you are getting someone a new wallet for a gift you should give it with a lucky dollar in it so they never have an empty wallet
Having a penny in any container is an old Celtic custom. If if you don’t have a penny, then it was enough to put a small pebble in a container. This was tied to always having grain or other food, and superstitions on financial luck.
A friend of mine, made a beautiful sporran for me and enclosed a coin in it when he sent it to me. he also included a sage sprig (An old American Indian tradition in giving a gift). That would be a great tradition when buying a sporran or when a sporran is made, a coin can be placed inside. It would be a nice touch.
My dad always says that you should always have money in your pocket or wallet because an empty one will keep you poor. When I’ve spent my last buck in my wallet or pockets I’ve gone a while without any money at all. When I’ve kept money in my wallet or pockets I’ve usually had more money come to me. We’re an Army family, 3 of the 4 of us kids served too, following his example. He’s a Retired Army MSG and he served way before the challenge coins became a thing. I believe it has to do with superstition but I’m definitely trying to follow his lead because he’s said that since he’s followed that rule he’s never had a lack of money, and he doesn’t do it anymore but he used to have liquor “available”, he still carries a handkerchief and a penknife, usually on a keychain or in his car. He’s in his late 80’s, been through Korea and Vietnam, speaks, recites poetry and sings in 5 languages and has amazing luck betting on horses and lotto. I think I’ll keep following his advice because it works from what I’ve seen. Blessings!
It's a fairly common superstition. Ancient Greeks, especially soldiers and sailors, always kept two coins in their purse to be placed on their eyes after death. It was said that the coins were to pay the ferryman Charon who took souls across the river Styx. To lack these coins was bad luck, and might result in someone being taken prematurely - for the insult I suppose. Sailors in the Christian era wore a heavy gold hoop earring of sufficient weight to pay for a proper Christian burial. Given that most sailors were slaves, bastards, or prostitutes, three groups that neither the Catholic Church nor the Anglican Church would accept as members, I think that was rather a forlorn hope. But then again, who knows, many graves and boothill cemeteries were consecrated later, at which point their descendents became "respectable" . From Russia to Japan, purses, coin purses, and pockets were always popular "good fortune" gifts, and yes, of course, it was an insult and bad luck to gift them empty for according to the principles of sympathetic magic purses, coin purses, and pockets symbolized the relationship and its future. I have somewhere a tiny, extremely cheap, souvenir coin purse from the Soviet Union in which the manufacturer glued a 5 kopek coin. There many other superstitions regarding purses, coin purses and pockets, like it's bad luck to leave them open (if they close) or dry them upside down left your luck evaporate or run out like water; to set them on the ground or floor, kitchen/dining table, bartop, chair seat, on a bed, etc etc etc In a similar vein it is bad luck to give sharp objects in these same areas as knives, forks, swords, sissors, pins, needles, etc would cut, sever, stab or prick the relationship. The countercharm is for the receiver to pay the giver the smallest coin of the land, making it a purchase, not a gift . One of the "curios" commonly found in Mojos (*wet bags", little bags that are regularly annointed to keep them charged, and worn next to the skin for luck) is one or more silver coins. But in the originals, tin bits, silver wire, Pieces of Eight, and other coins were used.
I have been watching some of your shows and find them very interesting. My fathers' family is Scotch/Irish and I have found their Tartans, Bell of the Borders and MacLaren which I someday hope to be able to purchase. But, I have one question...I always see the framed Tartans on the walls behind you, are they available for purchase, I haven't seen them on your Website. Thanks for all you do. Be safe, Rebecca
The British term "spend a penny" refers to using a public pay water closet. As men don't necessarily need to use such a device, it may be as important and proper to carry a penny for a lady in need as it is to carry a clean handkerchief for her as well.
its generally a custom across the uk especially if its new you should never gift an empty purse or wallet. but for similar reasons you should never spend or give away your last penny as its said to cause bad luck with finances
There's a really gross Icelandic ritual/custom called nabrok where you made a pair of pants out of a friend's skin, made from one big piece flayed from their waist down. In the tradition, you put a coin (that apparently must be stolen from the poor widow) in the scrotum of the pants and kept there to attract wealth. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but the traditions seem somewhat similar to me
More women are wearing kilts, both traditional tartan and utility kilts. What do y'all think of this trend and what advice do you have for us ladies who want to wear our kilts proud?
