Hogmanay is the Scottish word for the traditional New Year's celebration.
Hogmanay refers to Scotland's New Year's Eve and New Year's Day festivities, including parties, songs, visits, gifts, and local customs. In many communities, the celebration continues beyond midnight, making the period around December 31 and January 1 an important holiday season.
The exact origin of the word Hogmanay is uncertain. Scholars have proposed influences from French, Norse, Gaelic, and Scots vocabulary, but no single derivation is universally accepted. The uncertainty concerns the word's history, not the meaning of the modern festival.
A famous Hogmanay custom is first-footing, in which the first person to enter a home after midnight brings symbolic gifts such as food, drink, or coal. A dark-haired first-footer was traditionally considered lucky in some regions. Hogmanay is distinct from Burns Night, which honors poet Robert Burns on January 25.