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Handsel Monday is the first Monday of the year, particularly as used to be celebrated in Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 and northern England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. Among the rural population of Scotland, Auld
Auld

Auld as a surname may refer to the following persons:* Alex Auld , Canadian hockey player* Andy Auld , Scottish-American soccer player* Bertie Auld , Scottish football player and manager...
 Hansel Monday, is traditionally celebrated on the first Monday after the 12th of January.

The "handsel" refers to small tips and gifts of money that it was customary to give at the beginning of the first working week of a new year.






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Handsel Monday is the first Monday of the year, particularly as used to be celebrated in Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 and northern England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. Among the rural population of Scotland, Auld
Auld

Auld as a surname may refer to the following persons:* Alex Auld , Canadian hockey player* Andy Auld , Scottish-American soccer player* Bertie Auld , Scottish football player and manager...
 Hansel Monday, is traditionally celebrated on the first Monday after the 12th of January.

The "handsel" refers to small tips and gifts of money that it was customary to give at the beginning of the first working week of a new year. In this respect it is somewhat similar to Boxing Day
Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a bank holiday or a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and countries in the Commonwealth of Nations with a mainly Christian population....
. If the handsel was a physical object rather than money, tradition said that the object could not be sharp, or it would "cut" the relationship between the giver and the recipient.

It is worth mentioning that one William Hunter, a collier (residing in the parish of Tillicoultry
Tillicoultry

Tillicoultry is a village in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. Its Gaelic name is sometimes anglicised into Tullich-cul-tir in Scots Gaelic - "The mount or hill at the back of the country")...
, in Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire

Clackmannanshire and sometimes called Clacks is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland Council areas of Scotland of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife....
), was cured in the year 1738 of an inveterate rheumatism or gout, by drinking freely of new ale, full of harm or yeast. The poor man had been confined to his bed. for a year and a half, having almost entirely lost the use of his limbs. On the evening of Handsel Monday, as it is called, some of his neighbours came to make merry with him. Though he could not rise, yet he always took his share of the ale, as it passed round the company, and in the end he became much intoxicated. The consequence was that he had the use of his limbs next morning, and was able to walk about. He lived more than twenty years after this, and never had the smallest return of his old complaint. —Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland
Statistical Accounts of Scotland

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland are three series of documentary publications covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries....
, 1792, xv., note on p. 201.