Edinburgh’s major New Year’s Eve festival, famous for torchlight processions and street parties, is called Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is the Scottish celebration of the last day of the year and the New Year period. Edinburgh’s modern festival includes concerts, large outdoor gatherings, a torchlight procession, and a midnight fireworks display. The city’s events are among the most internationally recognized New Year celebrations in the United Kingdom.
The word Hogmanay has uncertain origins, and historians have proposed several French, Gaelic, Norse, and Scots explanations. The celebration itself reflects a mixture of older midwinter customs and later Scottish social traditions. First-footing, in which the first visitor to enter a home after midnight brings symbolic gifts, is another well-known Scottish New Year practice.
Hogmanay is sometimes used as if it means only Edinburgh’s street party. More broadly, it refers to Scotland’s New Year celebration, while Edinburgh hosts its most famous large-scale version.