Edinburgh's traditional New Year's Eve festival, celebrated with torchlight processions and street parties, is called Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is the Scottish name for New Year's Eve and, by extension, the celebrations surrounding the turn of the year. Edinburgh developed one of the world's best-known large-scale Hogmanay events, with concerts, public gatherings, and a torchlight procession through the city.
The word's origin is uncertain. Scholars have proposed connections with Scandinavian, French, Gaelic, and other linguistic traditions, but no single explanation is universally accepted. That uncertainty is part of why confidently assigning the word to one language can be misleading.
Scottish Hogmanay customs 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 whisky, shortbread, or coal traditionally symbolized warmth, food, and prosperity. Hogmanay is not the same holiday as Burns Night, which honors poet Robert Burns in January.