Edinburgh's famous Scottish New Year's Eve celebration is called Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is the Scottish name for New Year's Eve and, by extension, the celebrations surrounding the change of year. Edinburgh's modern festival is known for concerts, street parties, torchlight events, and a large midnight fireworks display, although its exact program can change from year to year.
Scottish New Year traditions include first-footing, in which the first person to enter a home after midnight is thought to influence the household's luck. Gifts such as whisky, shortbread, coal, or salt have traditionally carried symbolic meanings, and customs vary across Scotland.
The word Hogmanay has an uncertain etymology. Proposed connections include Scots, French, Gaelic, and Norse influences, but no single origin is universally accepted. Hogmanay is sometimes mistakenly treated as merely the name of Edinburgh's festival; it is also the general Scottish term for the New Year's celebration.