One of the most remote communities in Britain is yet to celebrate Christmas or New Year.
However, residents of the island of Foula will finally unwrap their presents this week.
And they will also see in the New Year nearly two weeks after the rest of the country – because their island still adheres to an ancient calendar for the festivity.
Foula in Shetland – Britain’s remotest permanently inhabited island – marks Xmas and New Year according to the feast days of the old Julian calendar – Yule on January 6 and Newerday on the 13th.
The community of just more than 30 on the tiny Shetland island has a strong Norse tradition of folklore, music and special festivities. Its inhabitants were the last to speak Norn, a form of old Norse which died out around 1800.
Islanders will gather in one house to celebrate Christmas on Friday where they will exchange gifts and greetings.
The islanders include 10 children – who have been patiently waiting for Santa Claus.
“Islanders have celebrated these days before the Greorgian Calendar,” said crofter Stuart Taylor, 44.
“It is not just part of our tradition – but the world’s. It is everybody else who changed – not us.
“We are not unique – other parts of the world, such as areas of Russia, still celebrate the old calendar.
“On the 6th, families open their presents in their own homes and then in the evening we all tend to end up in one house. It is the same at New Year on the 13th – we will visit each others’ houses and end up at one.
“This tradition is not going to end here. The children have been brought up to expect their main presents on the 6th.”
The island is 3.5-miles long by 2.5miles wide.
At one point, Foula – which lies 15 miles west of mainland Shetland and 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, on the same latitude as southern Greenland – sustained 287 people.
Foula got running water in 1982 and full electricity by 1984, supplied by a diesel generator. It currently has a renewable energy system – mainly photo voltaic – backed up by diesel.
The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used civil calendar internationally. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582.
The rest of Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, but Foula stuck with the old Julian calendar.