Unpopular opinions.

[thistledo]

Kilts are class tbh and so are weddings usually. 

Hogmanay / New year can absolutely get fucked though. 

[vikingTON]

5 hours ago, DiegoDiego said:

6 hours ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

 

But people have listed having all your mates around as the best part of it. You don't need a wedding to do that so I don't really see what they offer.

You pretty much do need a wedding for anyone with a real circle of friends, that therefore includes some folk who work/live elsewhere, some with kids and everyone with other social engagements - and work - to juggle as well. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

There can be no doubt that Hogmanay has went massively downhill and is a shadow of its former self, but can anyone pinpoint how or why this happened? my memory is of it going downhill after the millennium which was always going to be hard to beat. but I wisny that auld then and I did enjoy a good few parties up until 9 or 10 year ago when it seemed to die a death completely. thoughts?

[Bert Raccoon]

When your local starts charging you a tenner to get in because it's Hogmanay and they've stuck some sausage rolls on, you know games a bogey 

[scottsdad]

3 hours ago, effeffsee_the2nd said:

There can be no doubt that Hogmanay has went massively downhill and is a shadow of its former self, but can anyone pinpoint how or why this happened? my memory is of it going downhill after the millennium which was always going to be hard to beat. but I wisny that auld then and I did enjoy a good few parties up until 9 or 10 year ago when it seemed to die a death completely. thoughts?

I think it died away in the 90s. Remember first footing in the early 90s when I was 12 or 13 with my parents and siblings. Folk we didn't see all year would come to us as well. Jive Bunny playing on the record player. By the late 90s it had stopped. 

As to why, I really don't know. I blame Jive Bunny. 

[Derry Alli]

Mind when yi used to just wander the streets chappin' doors and goin in hooses whar yi didna ken anybuhdy but it wis new year an yiz ah just got oan?

Nah, me neither. Fucking weirdo behaviour.

 

 

[ICTChris]

This is a good question, when did Hogmanay stop being special?

I think that having a huge all night bevvy up used to be seen as something very special and out of the ordinary but the binge drinking culture of the 90s made it pretty normal.

I think commercialisation has also changed things. Hogmanay used to be considered more important a holiday in Scotland than Christmas - my grandparents didn’t have a full day off on Christmas Day and up until the mid 1970s a full football card was played on the 25th. Now Christmas is universally the most important holiday and that’s changed how people see Hogmanay.

Commercialisation has also changed the Hogmanay celebrations. The street party in Edinburgh used to be free and was a gathering of people to have a drink and celebrate. Now it’s a ticketed concert and really pushed towards tourism. Even things like the Loony Dook, which was a small local event in South Queensferry, is now a commercial, ticketed concern.

The move away from Hogmanay being something that people participate in with their family, friends and neighbours to being a commercial experience that you pay for and then expect to occur probably explains what it seems less special. That or we are all just getting old.

[Honest_Man#1]

16 hours ago, DiegoDiego said:

16 hours ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

What a strange post, nobody has said anything like what you’ve insinuated in the first paragraph. Weddings are just another event that all your mates attend and are therefore good fun. You’re also allowed to have good nights out with mates separate to weddings.
Bizarre stuff.

But people have listed having all your mates around as the best part of it. You don't need a wedding to do that so I don't really see what they offer.

That’s a terrible argument that could be used for any event though. Nobody has argued that weddings are good because they are the only source of fun with your mates, so the above argument doesn’t really make sense as a way to suggest weddings aren’t good.

You can have fun with mates in loads of circumstances - a wedding being a prime example where everyone is brought together and in a great celebratory mood.

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, Mr. Alli said:

Mind when yi used to just wander the streets chappin' doors and goin in hooses whar yi didna ken anybuhdy but it wis new year an yiz ah just got oan?

Nah, me neither. Fucking weirdo behaviour.

 

 

I did that. Until I actually watched one guy in abject terror, trying to smile his way through a teenage invasion of his house, wondering when it would get trashed or vomited on.

There wasn't much joy involved and those with any sense stopped it.

[jimbaxters]

If being invited to and attending a wedding is not a joyful thing then what is? Weddings are a great do.

[ICTChris]

I don't think I've ever attended a wedding that I didn't enjoy.

[hk blues]

3 minutes ago, jimbaxters said:

If being invited to and attending a wedding is not a joyful thing then what is? Weddings are a great do.

Unless it's a Chinese wedding - they call it the red bomb as it's expensive i.e. costs a bomb.  The couple hope to get enough money from the guests to cover the cost of the wedding.  In itself it's fine but they take it too far and make it clear it's expected that the "entrance fee" should be x amount.  I've only been to one as I rubbered the 2nd as I couldn't be arsed with it - despite not going one of my colleagues, a Chinese-Canadian told me not so discretely that I still had to pay under Chinese culture.  Thank f**k I'm not Chinese then was my reply. I had intended to give the money but this attitude hacked me off big time.

Here in the Philippines we've been to a few and they're pretty casual, no need to wear a suit etc.  The purvey can vary from OK to OK+ but usually it's a free bar so all in all a good do. 

[Derry Alli]

Just now, ICTChris said:

I don't think I've ever attended a wedding that I didn't enjoy.

Not even your own?

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

22 minutes ago, jimbaxters said:

If being invited to and attending a wedding is not a joyful thing then what is? Weddings are a great do.

I think that’s only the case if it’s a mate of yours tbh. I’ve got a couple next year where the only person I’ll know will be my own gf. I’ve only met the bride in each very briefly as well. I honestly wish I wasn’t invited as both are going to be shite and there’ll be the lingering temptation to get too drunk to make it bearable. 

[jimbaxters]

1 minute ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

I think that’s only the case if it’s a mate of yours tbh. I’ve got a couple next year where the only person I’ll know will be my own gf. I’ve only met the bride in each very briefly as well. I honestly wish I wasn’t invited as both are going to be shite and there’ll be the lingering temptation to get too drunk to make it bearable. 

Just an idea but you could try speaking to people when you're there. How did you make friends in the first place?

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

9 minutes ago, jimbaxters said:

Just an idea but you could try speaking to people when you're there. How did you make friends in the first place?

Interesting idea. I plan to sit in the corner and glare at people for the full night.

[hk blues]

7 minutes ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

Interesting idea. I plan to sit in the corner and glare at people for the full night.

That's the new Mother-in-Law's job. 

[VincentGuerin]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

Unless it's a Chinese wedding - they call it the red bomb as it's expensive i.e. costs a bomb.  The couple hope to get enough money from the guests to cover the cost of the wedding.  In itself it's fine but they take it too far and make it clear it's expected that the "entrance fee" should be x amount.  I've only been to one as I rubbered the 2nd as I couldn't be arsed with it - despite not going one of my colleagues, a Chinese-Canadian told me not so discretely that I still had to pay under Chinese culture.  Thank f**k I'm not Chinese then was my reply. I had intended to give the money but this attitude hacked me off big time.

Here in the Philippines we've been to a few and they're pretty casual, no need to wear a suit etc.  The purvey can vary from OK to OK+ but usually it's a free bar so all in all a good do. 

My missus lived in Korea as a younger lady, and she says similar things about the wedding culture there. Everyone is expected to put in a good chunk of cash, so couples basically invite everyone they've ever met and everyone their parents have ever met. It's essentially a cynical scam. Sounds fucking shite.

Says she went to two before she decided enough was enough, as her view shifted from the idealist-this-foreign-culture-is-lovely-and-quaint to the view that she was basically getting rinsed for cash by people she didn't know. Both were basically huge impersonal events with loads of people there who couldn't have had a conversation with the couple because they didn't know them, but felt compelled to attend to save face as they'd been invited so just went along and paid up.

I'd never put up with that, I object to being emailed a fucking wedding list!

Edited December 6, 2022 by VincentGuerin

[hk blues]

13 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

My missus lived in Korea as a younger lady, and she says similar things about the wedding culture there. Everyone is expected to put in a good chunk of cash, so couples basically invite everyone they've ever met and everyone their parents have ever met. It's essentially a cynical scam. Sounds fucking shite.

Says she went to two before she decided enough was enough, as her view shifted from the idealist-this-foreign-culture-is-lovely-and-quaint to the view that she was basically getting rinsed for cash by people she didn't know. Both were basically huge impersonal events with loads of people there who couldn't have had a conversation with the couple because they didn't know them, but felt compelled to attend to save face as they'd been invited so just went along and paid up.

I'd never put up with that, I object to being emailed a fucking wedding list!

Pretty much my experience.  The 1st one we attended in Hong Kong was fine, the guy was a good c**t from Wigan (Chinese) and his wife was from Stoke (English) so it was a balance between the two styles.  That said, we were still expected to weigh in with the donation.  The 2nd was mostly local-style but not to extreme but was boring as they played mahjong all evening as well as the local customs - fair enough but not my cup of char. No bevvy or band either.  That was the last we attended and, as I said in my post, we had no qualms about rubber-earing suggestions we should still donate.  

[DiegoDiego]

That’s a terrible argument that could be used for any event though. Nobody has argued that weddings are good because they are the only source of fun with your mates, so the above argument doesn’t really make sense as a way to suggest weddings aren’t good.
You can have fun with mates in loads of circumstances - a wedding being a prime example where everyone is brought together and in a great celebratory mood.

People hadn't really put forward arguments for weddings being good other than having your mates around though. I'm still not really sure what it offers other than applying a set of rules, protocols and restrictions to a gathering of folk. As nights out with mates go, weddings in my experience have been at the lower end of the fun scale.

I've also managed on multiple occasions to have all my circle of friends, many of whom live in different parts of the country, together for a good time without someone having to get married or die.