What is Scotland's traditional New Year's festival called?

Scotland’s traditional New Year’s festival is called Hogmanay.

Hogmanay covers the celebrations surrounding the last day of the old year and the arrival of the new one. Modern festivities commonly include street parties, torchlight processions, concerts, fireworks, and the practice of first-footing, in which the first visitor to enter a home after midnight is associated with the household’s luck for the year.

Edinburgh hosts one of the best-known large-scale Hogmanay celebrations, with events extending beyond midnight. Customs vary across Scotland, and some communities emphasize local songs, visits, food, or fire ceremonies rather than a single national program.

The word’s origin is uncertain. Proposed explanations connect it with Scots, French, Norse, and Gaelic sources, but no single etymology is universally accepted. Hogmanay is not the same as Burns Night, which honors poet Robert Burns on January 25, or St Andrew’s Day, Scotland’s national day on November 30.