Hogmanay is the Scottish word for the last day of the year or New Year’s Eve and is generally regarded as the most important Scottish holiday. Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years. And so it was, right up until the 1950s that many Scots worked over Christmas and celebrated their winter solstice holiday at New Year, when family and friends would gather for a party and to exchange presents which came to be known as hogmanays.  

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Festival dates back to 1993 and has evolved to become one of the greatest outdoor celebrations of New Year’s Eve in the world. Hogmanay is technically just one day but the Hogmanay celebration in Edinburgh (as well as in other places in Scotland) lasts for 3 or 4 days. In any normal year the big events include a torchlight procession, a massive outdoor street party, a live headline concert and fireworks, and free culture trail across the city - and of course mmediately after midnight on New Year's Eve it is traditional for the thousands of revellers to join hands and sing Robert Burns‘ “Auld Lang Syne”......before continuing to party intothe wee hours.

What makes it special?

• Highlighted as one of the ‘Top 100 things to do before you die’ and recently the only festival to appear in the ‘Discovery Channel – Top 25 World Travel Experiences’, Edinburgh's Hogmanay Street Party is one of the world’s greatest New Year celebrations.
• As the bells strike midnight, join hands with friends from across the globe in the world’s biggest rendition of Auld Lang Syne!
• Spend the first day of the new year in Scotland leaping into the freeing waters of the River Forth or take a January journey through Edinburgh discovering its fantastic cultural heritage.