Fireworks take place at Edinburgh Castle during Scotland's Hogmanay New Year's Eve celebrations. The castle's elevated position makes it a dramatic focal point for the midnight display above Edinburgh.
Edinburgh's Hogmanay is a multi-day festival that can include torchlight processions, concerts, street parties, and a large public countdown. The castle fireworks are one of its most recognizable visual features, but they are only one part of the wider program.
The word Hogmanay refers to the Scottish New Year celebration, whose customs developed through a mixture of Scottish, northern European, and local traditions. First-footing, in which the first visitor to enter a home after midnight brings symbolic gifts, is another well-known custom associated with the season.
The castle display is sometimes confused with the separate fireworks held in other cities or with Edinburgh's summer military tattoo fireworks. The New Year's Eve show belongs to Hogmanay and is timed to the turn of the year.