Which New Year’s Eve event in Edinburgh is famous for torchlight processions and street parties?

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is famous for torchlight processions and large New Year’s Eve street parties.

Hogmanay is the Scottish name for New Year’s Eve and the associated celebrations. Edinburgh’s modern festival has included a torchlight procession, concerts, a large street gathering, and midnight fireworks. The exact program can change from year to year, but the event is one of Scotland’s most internationally recognized New Year celebrations.

The torchlight procession usually takes place before midnight and leads crowds through central Edinburgh. Its firelit atmosphere connects the modern festival with older winter customs involving light, communal movement, and the turning of the year.

Hogmanay is broader than Edinburgh’s festival: communities across Scotland hold their own celebrations. It is also different from Burns Night, which honors poet Robert Burns on January 25. The famous practice of first-footing—welcoming the first visitor into a home after midnight—is another Scottish New Year custom, but it is not the name of the Edinburgh event.