Edinburgh hosts the famous Hogmanay street celebration on Princes Street.
Hogmanay is the Scottish celebration of New Year's Eve, and Edinburgh's event is one of its best-known public festivals. The modern organized celebration developed in the late twentieth century, with concerts, a torchlight procession, street entertainment, and a large midnight gathering near Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street.
Princes Street provides a dramatic setting because it runs beneath the Old Town skyline, including the castle. At midnight, fireworks are launched around the city and crowds often sing “Auld Lang Syne,” the song most closely associated with New Year worldwide.
The name Hogmanay has a debated origin, with proposed connections to Scots, French, Norse, and other linguistic sources. Scottish New Year customs also include first-footing, in which the first person to enter a home after midnight is traditionally expected to bring symbolic gifts such as coal, shortbread, or whisky.