WELCOME TO An Entertainment Site for Scottish Country Dancers - Enjoy the curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Snowman Day
Jan 18
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"Snowmen fall from heaven, unassembled."
Kilt up and dance, snow folks! If too much snow is preventing you from reaching your dance class, assemble your own! Snowman Day is celebrated annually on January 18th. The date was chosen because the number "18" resembles the form of a snowman: the "8" symbolizes the snowman's body, and the "1" represents his stick or broom!
Devised by the hardy members of the Edmonton Caledonian Branch Children’s class - which showed up for dance class when the temperature was minus 27 with a wind chill of minus 35, and is humourously described as being "a jig or reel for four frozen couples"!
1–8: Eight hands around and back (making the big ball)
9–12: Couples two and three, four right hands across (making the middle ball)
13–16: First couple turn once by the right hand, retaining hands (making the head)
17–20: First couple lead up (for 2) then cast below twos who step up (making the hat and ready for the scarf)
21–24: First couple, cross by the right and cast to bottom (tying the scarf), couples three and four step up, bars 23 & 24.
25–28: All advance and retire (boys motion placing sticks for arms, girls motion placing carrot for nose)
29–32: First couple dance half figure of eight around the fours (patting snow at the base to make sure he’s solid)
The devisors may have been inspired by an earlier effort In 2008, as residents of Bethel, Maine, USA, together with help from surrounding towns, built a giant snow woman measuring 37.21 m (122 ft 1 in) tall, over a period of one month! 13 million pounds of snow were used to build "Olympia the Snow Woman." Olympia was decorated with 5 foot wreaths for eyes, 16 skis for eyelashes, tires for buttons, and a 130 foot scarf! Stay warm, snow dancers! 💙 ☃️ ☃️ ☃️
The Scottish Snowman
As every child knows, snow must be just the right temperature for snow ball rolling and building, not dry, but just above melting!
World Snowman Day was started Started in 2010 by Cornelius Graetz – a German with the world’s biggest collection of model snowmen!
Regionally, there are snowman building technique variations. In North America, snowmen are generally built with three spheres representing the head, torso, and lower body. In the United Kingdom, two spheres are used, one sphere representing the body and one representing the head. The usual practice is to then decorate and optionally dress the snowman with sticks for arms, stones or coal for eyes, and a carrot for a nose!
In hotter desert climes, you can even build a snowman out of sagebrush or tumbleweeds!
For a video of the charming children's animated film, The Snowman (1982) which includes a dance with a Scottish kilted snowman, click below.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
