Photo courtesy of Robert Smith. Retrieved from bbc.com
A remote Shetland island is celebrating its traditional New Year’s Day – two weeks after other parts of the world.
Foula – which is home to fewer than 40 people – never fully adopted the modern Gregorian calendar, preferring instead to follow some of the traditions of the Julian calendar.
So this sees islanders celebrate Christmas on 6 January rather than 25 December, and New Year’s Day on 13 January.
“It is how we have always done it,” one islander told BBC Scotland News.
More than four centuries ago, Pope Gregory XIII designed the calendar used today to replace the Julian calendar, which had miscalculated the number of days it takes for the Earth to revolve around the sun.
Foula residents do not follow the Julian calendar as a strict daily rule due to the practicalities of island life, as they have to fit in with things such as plane and ferry timetables.
However Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are different.