What is the name of the New Year's Eve celebration in Edinburgh?
Answer
Hogmanay
Answer
Hogmanay
The New Year's Eve celebration in Edinburgh is called Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is Scotland's traditional celebration of the last day of the year and the arrival of the new one. Edinburgh hosts one of the best-known modern versions, with a torchlight procession, concerts, street festivities, and a midnight fireworks display. The exact program can vary because of weather, safety, and public-health considerations.
The word Hogmanay has uncertain origins. Proposed explanations connect it with French, Norse, Gaelic, and Scots language histories, but no single etymology is universally accepted. The festival's customs developed from a mixture of older winter traditions and later Scottish social practices.
A famous Hogmanay custom is first-footing: the first person to enter a home after midnight traditionally brings symbolic gifts such as shortbread, coal, salt, or whisky. Hogmanay is not the same as Burns Night, which commemorates poet Robert Burns on January 25, or St Andrew's Day, Scotland's national day on November 30.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026