Edinburgh Scotland is one of the top ten cities in the UK and one of the top ten locations around the world in popularity for celebrating the New Year’s Eve festival. The city itself is so beautiful as to be known as one of the most “diverse and picturesque” cities in all of Europe due to the age, variety and different styles of Architecture still visible here. You are probably not here for a history lesson so much as you are to discover about the crazy days surrounding the New Year’s Celebration in Edinburgh and rest assured, they do get crazy indeed.
The Scots have a long and colorful history surrounding their celebration of the New Year and much of it continues to this day. The local term for the New Year’s Celebration in Edinburgh is known as Hogmanay and while there may be many different theories about the origins of the word, its meaning remains clear. When you hear the word Hogmanay in Edinburgh this New Year’s Eve, just remember that it means a week long celebration full of drinking, dancing and generally a healthy dose of beer or Ishkabaha … or both. Ishkabaha is the Scots-Gaelic word for Waters of Life and is the derivative source for the word Whisky.
The weeklong celebration of the New Year in Edinburgh sees many traditional customs that many foreigners will not be a part of. However, unless you really miss cleaning your house at the last minute, you are not missing so much with some of the more homey traditional Scottish New Year rites. However, there is never any social event that is lacking during the New Year’s celebration so you should not run out of activities to participate in or enjoy from the sidelines depending on your degree of enthusiasm.
Christmas was actually not celebrated by the Scots for some four-hundred years or so until somewhere around the 1950s due to religious convictions and other beliefs. For this reason, the Scots generally did not have an adequate opportunity to gather together until the New Year celebration and many of the separate traditions were combined. Do not worry as you will not be expected to provide gifts for your Scottish hosts for the New Year but you may want to when you see the grandiose displays of celebration that do occur during this time period.
On New Year’s Eve, the celebration and festivities in Edinburgh begin to pick up their pace very rapidly. The torchlight procession through Edinburgh is only one of many celebrations but sure to get your attention as thousands of people march through the streets with real torches. In some parts of Scotland, fireballs are used rather than torches. These giant fireballs are attached to chains and physically swung around. So heavy are they that it reportedly takes somewhere near sixty men to carry them in some locations.
As the New Year begins in Edinburgh, the traditional song by Robert Byrns, Auld Lang Syne is sung but there are other benefits as well. It is customary to ring in the New Year in Edinburgh with a kiss as well. If your significant other is jealous, you may want to kiss them but if not, or if you happen to be enjoying the New Year Celebration in Edinburgh alone … well … who knows what the new year in Edinburgh may bring for you?
Post Credit
- Midnight Strikes by Jenni40947 & Edinburgh, Scotland, Hogmanay, New Years by Andrew Moir
