Hogmanay is one of the most important days in the Scottish calendar with thousands turning out to celebrate the occasion.
While traditions like the singing of Auld Lang Syne are known far and wide, you may want to know more about the meaning behind the day's name and the reason why it's so important in Scotland.
If you're looking to celebrate Hogmanay armed with some knowledge, look no further.
What does Hogmanay actually mean?
While the origins of Hogmanay are thought to come from Norse and Gaelic traditions, the term itself is rather jumbled.
The word was first recorded in a Latin entry from 1443 in Yorkshire as Hagnonayse with the first appearance in the Scots language coming in 1604 in Elgin, according to the New World Encyclopedia.
The term Hogmanay is used to refer to the last day of the year and is synonymous with New Year's Eve.
Why is Hogmanay such an important event in Scotland?
While the new year is celebrated around the globe, it is a particularly big occasion in Scotland where it is known as Hogmanay.
Parties across Scotland tend to last for days with revellers celebrating the occasion from late December to January 2.
According to the BBC, Hogmanay can trace its origins back to the Samhain celebration which was used to mark the end of the harvest and year.
This later morphed into the Yule festival. The drunken debauchery associated with this continued even after Catholicism became Scotland's main religion.
It wasn't until 1640 when Parliament banned the Christmas break over concerns by Presbyterians that the holiday encouraged too much partying that Hogmanay became the main event for many.
This is thought to have encouraged Scots to begin moving their partying to the New Year instead.
The Church of Scotland strongly discouraged the celebration of Christmas for nearly 400 years with it only becoming a public holiday in 1958.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel