Burning the clavie
Burning the clavie is an ancient
Scottish custom still observed at
Burghead,
Scotland, a fishing village on the
Moray Firth, near
Forres. The
clavie is a
bonfire of
casks split in two, lighted on
12 January, corresponding to the New Year of the old calendar. One of these casks is joined together again by a huge nail (Latin
clavis; hence the term). It is then filled with
tar, lighted and carried flaming round the village and finally up to a headland upon which stands the ruins of a
Roman altar, locally called the
Douro. It here forms the nucleus of the bonfire, which is built up of split casks. When the burning tar-barrel falls in pieces, the people scramble to get a lighted piece with which to kindle the New Year's fire on their cottage hearth. The
charcoal of the
clavie is collected and put in pieces up the cottage chimneys, to keep spirits and witches from coming down.
