Today we have been reminiscing about the activities and traditions we have had over the years,  first footing and returning home before sunrise, Hogmanay parties, New Year Day lunches, concerts and friends and family with whom we have enjoyed many New Years.   We talked about the food and drink that we had shared which prompted me to find out more about shortbread as I had made none this year after being given some.
In Scotland it is customary to be offered shortbread with a drink to toast in the New Year   Traditional Scottish shortbread is in three different shapes which could be circles called “rounds”, rectangles called “fingers” or a large circle divided into triangular segments called “Petticoat tails”.  One of the suggestions about the name of the biscuits is that it is a corruption of the French petites gatelles meaning “little cakes” which were very popular with Mary Queen of Scots who had been brought up in the French court for most of her youth.   Another suggestion is that the decorated triangles resembled the tallis patterns or petticoat tallis of the triangular segments of material used for making the large hooped petticoats that were worn in Tudor times.  
(My New Year resolution is to try to catch up on commenting on blips. -   Hopefully starting tomorrow!)