Edinburgh's New Year's Eve celebration is known as Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the New Year's Eve festivities held across Scotland. Edinburgh hosts one of the world's best-known Hogmanay programs, combining a torchlight procession, concerts, street celebrations, and a midnight fireworks display near Edinburgh Castle. Events and routes can change from year to year.
The celebration has roots in Scottish winter customs and became especially important after the Reformation, when Christmas observance was more restricted in Scotland than in many other European countries. Hogmanay later developed into a major public festival with both local traditions and modern entertainment.
A well-known custom connected with Hogmanay is first-footing: the first person to enter a home after midnight is traditionally expected to bring symbolic gifts such as shortbread, coal, or whisky. Hogmanay is not the same as Burns Night, which commemorates poet Robert Burns on January 25, although both are important Scottish cultural occasions.