Edinburgh’s New Year’s Eve celebration is known for Hogmanay’s Torchlight Procession.
The procession is a major opening event for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festivities. Thousands of torchbearers walk through the city, creating a river of light that usually ends at or near Holyrood Park. The event is held on 30 December, the evening before the main New Year’s Eve celebrations, rather than at midnight on 31 December.
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is one of Scotland’s best-known New Year festivals. Its programme has included street parties, concerts, fireworks, and the traditional practice of first-footing, in which the first visitor to enter a home after midnight is thought to influence the household’s fortune.
The Torchlight Procession has roots in older fire and winter traditions, but its modern form is part of Edinburgh’s organized Hogmanay programme. The event is sometimes mistakenly placed in Glasgow because both cities host large Scottish celebrations; the procession specifically belongs to Edinburgh.