Hogmanay is the annual New Year's Eve celebration in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Edinburgh's Hogmanay is a major multi-day festival featuring concerts, street events, torchlight processions, and a midnight fireworks display. The modern festival is internationally known, although Hogmanay also refers more broadly to Scottish New Year customs practiced throughout the country.
Scottish traditions connected with the occasion include first-footing, in which the first person to enter a home after midnight is believed to influence the household's luck. Gifts such as shortbread, whisky, or coal have traditionally been associated with the first footer's visit.
Hogmanay is not the same event as Burns Night, which honors poet Robert Burns on January 25. Nor is it simply the Scottish name for Christmas. Its identity comes from Scotland's distinctive New Year customs and the large public festival developed in Edinburgh.