The Scottish needfire was a fire of purification, lit every year to purify people, livestock, and the home.
The following article was published in 1920.
Needfire Old Folk Custom
Part of the Ritual of Purification That Has Survived in Scotland Until Recently
In folk custom, needfire is fire kindled by friction of two sticks of wood or of a rope on a wooden stake to ward off demons of disease.
Among the many customs and beliefs connected with fire, one of the most important is that of ritual purification. The new fire is supposed to regenerate, as fire sacrifice is designed to sustain, the invisible beings.
Needfire is a practice, usually, of shepherd peoples to ward off disease from the flocks. In historic times the sparks for kindling the needfire were obtained by twirling a wooden peg around a wooden post.
As in the case of new fire, the needfire was almost always accompanied with the extinguishing of the fires of the locality, and the neighbors also rekindled their fires from it as in the new fire ceremony.
In practice, the people passed, or the herds were driven through or between the flames of the needfire for purification.
The needfire custom survived in the highlands of Scotland until recent date, and probably traces of this superstition still exist in parts of Europe.
Source: The St. Charles herald. (Hahnville, La.), 25 Sept. 1920.
