Britain's remotest inhabited island celebrates Christmas nearly two weeks after rest of the UK

The residents of Great Britain’s remotest inhabited island celebrated Christmas today, nearly a fortnight after the rest of the UK and much of the world in accordance with a centuries-old tradition, reports Rublev with reference to The Independent.

The 30 or so people who live on the island of Foula in Shetland celebrate their winter festivals according to the Julian calendar, which was last observed by the rest of the UK in 1752 when the Gregorian calendar was adopted.
Since the leap year in 1900, Foula residents have celebrated Christmas and New Year 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar, on January 6 and January 13 respectively.

Every Christmas Day, all the islanders congregate in one house where they exchange gifts and sing songs. The group includes ten children.

“Islanders have celebrated these days since before the Gregorian calendar,” local Stuart Taylor told Mirror Online. “We are not unique - other parts of the world, such as areas of Russia, still celebrate the old calendar.

“Families open their presents in their own homes and then in the evening we all tend to end up in one house. The tradition is not going to end here," said the local resident.

Foula Island is part of the archipelago of the Shetland Islands, located in the north-east of Scotland. The name of the island, as the researchers suggest, is derived from the Old Norse «fuglaey», which means "birds’ island".

The island covers 12.65 square kilometers and has a population of about thirty people. The main occupations of the inhabitants of the island are fishing and sheep farming.

Inhabitants of the island, which is situated 200 miles north of John O’Groats in Scotland, preserve a strong Norse cultural tradition of music, festive foods and folklore tales. Their ancestors spoke Norn, an ancient form of the Old Norse language, until the start of the 19th century.

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