Just an excuse to get drunk?
The Scots certainly know how to throw a New Year's Eve party but where did Hogmanay originate from and how has it changed in recent years. Jonathan Campbell focuses on the celebrations held in Edinburgh every year.
Hogmanay is the name the Scots give to New Year's Eve, a celebration they have made all their own with a unique mix of tradition, self-indulgence, sentimentality and enthusiasm.
The roots of Hogmanay reach way back to the pagan practice of sun and fire worship in the deep mid-Winter. This evolved into the ancient Saturnalia, a great Roman Winter festival, where people celebrated completely free of restraint and inhibition. The Vikings also brought across their Yule festival, which became the twelve days of Christmas, or the "Daft Days" as they became known in Scotland. During the Reformation and following years the Winter festival went underground, but re-emerged at the end of the 17th Century. Since then the customs have continued to evolve to the modern day.
In most places the pagan festivities gradually merged with Christmas but when strict Scottish Protestant clerics in the sixteenth century abolished Christmas for being a Catholic mass, the Scots, not wanting to miss out on a mid-winter knees-up, put all their energy into greeting the New Year.
Even today, January 1st is a public holiday in the rest of the UK, but only in Scotland does the holiday extend to the next day too. In fact, right up to the 1950s Christmas was a normal working day for many people in Scotland, and Hogmanay was widely regarded as by far the more important celebration. Such was the importance of Hogmanay, that gifts were given on the first of January, and during the 18th century the number of gifts given then far exceeded those given at Christmas.
The origin of the name "Hogmanay" is a matter of some controversy - even the spelling of the word can create argument (Hogmany, Hogmaney). Various sources suggest it comes from the Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath (meaning Holy Month), or the Gaelic Oge Maidne (meaning New Morning). Some people also think that it could be from an Old French word meaning "gift" due to the custom of giving gifts. Whatever the origin of the name, it has remained an important Scottish celebration for many centuries.
Edinburgh
Over the years, Hogmanay street parties in the middle of towns and cities became popular, often centring around a prominent clock face which would ring out "the bells" at midnight.
These days, the largest New Year's Eve street party in Europe takes place in Edinburgh, with approximately 100,000 people on the streets of the city enjoying the culmination of a week-long series of events. On Hogmanay itself, a torchlight procession marches from Edinburgh Castle down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Rock and pop bands perform on stages in Princes Street Gardens playing to the increasingly inebriated masses and at midnight the huge fireworks display where hundreds of tons of fireworks are let off into the night sky above the castle and other prominent hills in the city. Once twelve o’ clock has been signalled Edinburgh joins the rest of the world in singing "Auld Lang Syne"., an old Scottish tune with lyrics by Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet.
It is only in recent years that Hogmanay has been celebrated on such a large scale, the first event of its kind was at the "Summit in the City" in 1992 when Edinburgh hosted the European Union Heads of State conference. Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival was so successful that it was commercially developed to become the “biggest street party in the world” and was voted as the “best millennium party on earth” by The Times newspaper. But has the increased marketability of the event begun to overshadow the true tradition of the celebrations? David Hayes discusses this in more detail in his article “In Search of Hogmanay.”
Traditional celebrations
Traditionally houses were cleaned from top to bottom, debts were paid and quarrels made up, and, after the bells of midnight were rung, great significance was made of welcoming good luck into your house. This still takes the form of the tradition of "first-footing" where neighbours visited one another bearing gifts. The ideal first-foot is a tall dark-haired male carrying a bottle of whisky. Women or redheads, on the other hand, bring bad luck, though I doubt anyone carrying a bottle of whisky would be turned away these days, whatever the colour of their hair. The webite, Rampant Scotland, talks more about the traditions of Hogmanay.
Some still have memories of men carrying bits of coal, black bun and whisky into the house, and of the streets being alive with 'happy' people until well into the small hours. People who throughout the previous year might have been near mortal enemies would suddenly become the best of friends, and the practice of kissing absolute strangers was a pleasure enjoyed by many. It has been hinted that another interpretation of 'Hogmanay' might be hug-many. With the passing of the years, this celebration of goodwill is one part of the Hogmanay spirit that does appear to have vanished, all but for the hugging.
Whatever the style of celebration, whether it is traditional and full of goodwill or more modern and full of drink and music, it has to be said, the Scots know how to celebrate the New Year.