Twisting Fairy Tales: Let the Old Year Out and the New Year In
Scotland and the rest of Europe have a variety of fascinating New Years traditions. Such as carrying symbolic gifts across the threshold and wearing red underwear for good luck in the new year. Every time I learn of a unique, quirky tradition, I feel excited and inspired.
Let the Old Year Out and the New Year In
One of my favorite New Year’s traditions is the practice of opening the front and back doors of a home at midnight to let the old year out and the new year in. When I first learned of this, my writing brain immediately started to ask what if. What if you left the doors open too long? What if you didn’t time the tradition right? What if you got the wrong year? What if someone else got your year? This train of thought lead to my short story “Borrowed Skin, Borrowed Year,” my best friend’s favorite piece in the modern fairy tale collection When Magic Calls.
I decided if you left your doors open too long, your new year could slip out the back and be replaced with another year. Being a lover of fantasy, I thought this other year should be a magical one, and as I wrote, I discovered that magical year would come from a magical creature whose life had been cut short. The years they were supposed to have left are still wandering throughout the world searching for people to live them. So be careful. Don’t leave your doors open too long, or one of these years just might find you.
That’s how I am inspired by fairy tales, folklore, traditions, and superstitions. I ask myself what would happen if that tradition went wrong, or too right and literal like King Midas.
First Footing Tradition
Another European tradition also made its way more subtly into “Borrowed Skin, Borrowed Year.” Many European countries have a first footing belief, where the features of the first person to cross your threshold determine whether your new year will be good or bad. In many places, the first man to enter your home must have dark hair and eyes.
In “Borrowed Skin, Borrowed,” the main character’s fair-haired, ex-boyfriend tries to force his way into her home after midnight on New Year’s Eve. She is learning to stand up for herself and refuses to let him in. Instead, she finds an injured, dark-haired man the next day, and he is the first person to cross her threshold. Without knowing it, she participates in two New Year’s Eve traditions: the open doors and the first footing. They work together to change her life.
Growing up, my family didn’t participate in any cultural New Years traditions, but we did always gather together, pop confetti poppers, and watch Cirque De Solei. What are your New Years traditions?
Caitlin Berve is the author of When Magic Calls: A Collection of Modern Fairy Tales and currently working on a fantasy novel involving an arranged marriage, damsels who save themselves, and non-human shape-shifters. Through her company Ignited Ink Writing and MFA, she edits other people’s novels, creates video tutorials, teaches, and writes. Caitlin seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers, pet all the fluffy and scaly animals she can, and find magic in modern times.