I was doing a search for Edinburgh and I kept getting the word "hogmany", what is it? I know it is something to do with new year but what exactly?

Hogmanay is the old Scot's word for New Year's Eve. Lots of traditions here, both old and new.

Edinburgh hosts a very large and festive Hogmanay Festival that begins on the 29th of December and continues through the new year. I'm fairly certain there's still a website devoted exclusively to it because you have to buy tickets for various events and it used to list all of them.

Sheila, what is a "new" tradition?Perhaps you mean the one where the big cities cordon off their centre for a bunch of drunks.Time was that the only ones who went to George Sq. at hogmanay were the saddos with nowhere else to go out of the usually severe weather.Now its being passed off as a tradition by the city fathers to increase tourism, hence the search hits.<BR> At Hogmanay its traditional for the Scots to go visiting each other in their houses(first footing) all night, not for mass celebrations in the streets.Traditional gifts of salt & coal are carried, certain people are considered lucky etc.Not really for tourists.Bigger & better celebrations for tourists in Germany (eg).

Frank; that's exactly what I meant.<BR><BR>I've never been to Edinburgh's Hogmany- or Aberdeen's for that matter. But i don't believe things are anything like they were when i was growing up and I think the new stuff is good fun if you like that sort of thing. <BR><BR>So fireworks in Princes Street Gardens is a new tradition.

Many years ago, it was traditional in Edinburgh to greet the New Year at the Tron Kirk in the High Street, then to go first footing. By the time I was old enought to do that in the early 1970s, it had degenerated to a bunch of drunken slobs! By the 90s, people were trying to resurrect that tradition and I believe the current street party in Edinburgh, which I have been to, was developed from that. Yes, it's attractive to tourists, but Edinburgh is a huge tourist center, so why not develop a celebration to include them? It is unfair to say that it's only for tourists when most of the people who go to it live in Edinburgh. The street party surely will have its share of drunks, it is Hogmanay after all, but there is also great entertainment in the form of several live bands, all playing Scottish music, both traditional and modern. The party is also carefully monitored by the police, and so there are rarely problems. It is not appropriate for children; Hogmanay is not a children's festival. Very few people first foot as described by Frank in this day and age. Most people I know either have a few friends over or go to a party. I don't remember ever taking salt, but when coal fires were in every house, coal was a popular first foot token. Also whisky, you offer the host a dram from your bottle, which you then take with you to the next house. Tea and shortbread were also popular items. Edinburgh has not made money from this party and its continued existence is in jeopardy unless they can figure out a way of at least covering the costs.