Edinburgh's major New Year's Eve event is known as Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is the Scots name for New Year's Eve and, more broadly, for the celebrations surrounding it. Edinburgh's modern festival has included torchlight processions, concerts, street parties, and a midnight fireworks display, making it one of Scotland's best-known annual events.
The word's exact origin is uncertain, and scholars have proposed several Scandinavian, French, and Gaelic connections. Scottish customs associated with Hogmanay include first-footing, in which the first visitor to enter a home after midnight traditionally brings symbolic gifts such as food or drink. Hogmanay is not the same as Burns Night, which commemorates poet Robert Burns on January 25.