The town of Lanark, Scotland, hosts a strange spring custom called Whuppity Scoorie. On 1st March at 6.00 pm, a 'wee bell' is rung. This is a signal for children to start running around St Nicholas Kirk, making noise & whirling paper balls over their heads. After three laps have been completed, coins are thrown, for which the children 'scramble'. Some say the custom originated in attempts to drive off evil winter spirits. Others claim it recalls the relaxing of curfews as the days lengthened, meaning children could play out longer. Yet another explanation asserts the custom stems from a religious practice in which penitents were whipped as they ran around the church before bathing (or 'scooring') their wounds in the River Clyde. The first written records of the custom date to the mid-1800s though one writer in 1893 claimed the practice was already 120-years-old. #weird #FolkloreSunday #folklore #Scotland #churches #history