Edinburgh’s major New Year celebration, held over several days, is called Hogmanay.
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is a large annual festival featuring concerts, street events, torchlight processions, and a midnight fireworks display. Its program has changed over time, but the name refers broadly to Scottish New Year celebrations rather than to only one performance or ceremony.
The word Hogmanay has uncertain origins. Proposed explanations connect it with Scots, French, Norse, or older regional traditions, and no single etymology is universally accepted. The uncertainty is part of the term’s long linguistic history rather than evidence that the festival itself is recent.
Scottish customs associated with the season include first-footing, in which the first person to enter a home after midnight is expected to bring symbolic gifts such as coal, shortbread, or whisky. Hogmanay is often confused with Burns Night, which honors poet Robert Burns on January 25.