January 2 is a public holiday in Scotland, part of the Hogmanay celebration.

It seems ironic that, centuries ago, the Church of Scotland — Presbyterian — forbade the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25 yet allowed two days of drunken revelry at the New Year.

What does Hogmanay mean?

Historians differ on the origin of the word Hogmanay.

Some say it is corrupted French. Others say it is Old Norse.

The Scotsman says (emphases mine):

Curiously, there is no definitive answer as to the etymological origin of the word but it is thought that it could be of Norman French descent, a language that historically accounts for many differences we see between English and the Scots language.

‘Hogmanay’ is similar to the French phrases ‘Homme est né’ which translates to “Man is born”, ‘Au gui mener’ which means “lead to mistletoe” and ‘à gueux mener’ for “bring to the beggars”. It’s also similar to the French word ‘hoginane’ which refers to a “gala day”.

Others believe that Hogmanay celebrations were introduced to Scotland by way of the Vikings who were invading in the 8th and 9th centuries. They connect the word to ‘Hoggo-nott’ which is an Old Norse word for ‘Yuletide’ – an archaic word for the Christmas season.

The BBC’s article says that the word could even be — gasp — Anglo-Saxon in origin:

Dr Donna Heddle, an expert from the University of the Highlands and Islands, explained: “The name could also come from the Anglo-Saxon ‘haleg monath’ meaning ‘holy month’.”

But Dr Heddle won’t push that hypothesis too far. We all know how much the Scots loathe anything Anglo-Saxon:

Dr Heddle says: “The most likely source seems to be French. In Normandy, presents given at Hogmanay were ‘hoguignetes’.”

Yes, when in doubt, better to go with the Auld Alliance of France and Scotland.

That said, The Herald asserts the word could have been used first in Yorkshire, albeit with French origins:

It’s thought to come from the French word ‘hoginane’, linked to the medieval word ‘aguillaneuf’ – meaning ‘gift at New Year’.

… the first recorded instance of the word emerges in Yorkshire, in the household ledger from the estate of Sir Robert Waterton in 1443.

There, family documents describe payments for large and small “hogmanayse”, believed to be gifts of food and drink given to children over the New Year period.

Sorry, Scotland, there’s no escaping the English!

Agricultural origins

Not surprisingly, Hogmanay comes from the pagan agricultural festival held around Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, and lasted approximately two weeks.

These agricultural and pagan traditions were widespread across Europe, however, as Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Starkey said in the GB News show exploring the history of the British Christmas:

As Britain was largely agricultural at the time and fields would have been to cold or muddy to cultivate, Christmas celebrations lasted for 12 days, from the 25th through January 6. Workers and their employers would have celebrated in their own ways, revelry included. The twelfth day ended with a play. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was no accident, Starkey said.

The Church turned these festivals into Christian celebrations.

The BBC’s article tells us:

The big Hogmanay celebrations date back to pagan times many hundreds of years ago, when people used to mark the end of the harvest and the end of the year with a festival called Samhain.

Later, this became a midwinter yule festival, which continued when Catholicism became the nation’s main religion. The period of celebrations became known as the ‘daft days’ with people eating and drinking lots, enjoying parties and bonfires, and visiting and hosting neighbours.

Hogmanay traditions

The Scotsman says that old Norse traditions remain part of Hogmanay. The Vikings invaded Scotland in the Dark Ages:

In reference to the ceremony’s Norse roots, firework displays and torchlit parades are still common over Hogmanay throughout Scotland, with the Stonehaven Fireball Ceremony one of the most famous in Scotland. Here, large fireballs are swung on metal chains down the town’s main street, signifying the Winter Solstice and the rejuvenating power of the sun.

One of the enduring characteristics of the celebration is to “first foot” the house of a neighbour, friend or family member. To bring good luck to the home, the first person to visit the home after the stroke of midnight should be a dark male with whisky, coal, shortbread or even a black bun [no doubt to resemble coal]. This tradition is believed to refer to Viking times, when the sight of a blonde stranger at your door was likely that of a Viking invading enemy instead of a well-wisher.

To first-foot an empty household is a grave mistake in Scottish culture, as it’s believed to bring bad luck to the home for the new year.

The Herald has much more. Although the aforementioned Yorkshire household first used the word in 1443:

It takes a further 150 years or so for it to appear in writing in Scotland, in the records of the Kirk Session in Elgin in 1604, which describe how William Pattoun had been charged for “singing and hagmonayis”.

No doubt Mr Pattoun was charged with begging door to door, because this became rather commonplace:

By the end of the 17th century, it pops up in the Scottish Presbyterian Eloquence, which noted how it is “ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland to go about from door to door upon New Year’s Eve, crying Hagmane”.

The annual begging often involved a performance of some sort, although not always:

… in Shetland, ‘Skeklers’ dressed entirely in distinctive costumes made of straw would perform songs and dance in return for food and drink.

In south of Scotland communities, it was traditional to watch ‘Galoshins’, a play similar to the English Mummers’ in which good would overcome evil often in the form of a heroic ‘knight’ slaying an evil beast.

Hogmanay could also be a time for people living in dire conditions to approach the better off and receive gifts of food and drink without fear of judgment or refusal, Bob [Pegg, Strathpeffer-based storyteller, musician and Hogmanay expert] adds.

“You are looking at people without a lot of money, who are given licence once a year to ‘beg’.

“Some might perform the Galoshins play in return for food, drink and some money. Guisers would go around the houses, sing or perform a rhyme and be offered hospitality in return.”

The Guisers dressed in disguise.

The British Christmas, whether in Scotland or England, closed with benevolence from one’s employers. Both countries had this tradition at the end of the season, with the English calling it Plough Monday and St Distaff’s Day:

Handsel Monday – the first Monday after New Year – became a time to exchange gifts and for workers to be treated by their masters to the day off, with cake, drink or a gift of money.

Strong drink was always part of the celebrations:

Customs and traditions varied from region to region. With Christmas a faded memory, focus was on throwing effort into ushering out the old year, and welcoming the new, usually with alcohol involved.

In Edinburgh, 17th century poet Robert Fergusson dubbed the period the “daft days”, writing of how “December’s dowie face, Glowrs owr the rigs wi’ sour grimace” is ushered away with celebration, whisky and drunkenness that could fall foul of the city’s guard …

A drink akin to egg nog was popular in Edinburgh:

One favourite tipple was ‘het pint’ – a bowl of hot ale and eggs spiced with nutmeg and laced with whisky.

It was potent stuff, according to one newspaper report from 1874’s Edinburgh celebrations.

There were also superstitions involving light:

In Gaelic areas, meanwhile, Hogmanay was a time of superstition and ritual. It became the Night of the Candle: with fears it was bad luck if the household fire went out, a flame had to be kept alive throughout the night.

Other traditions involved lightly beating a human dressed as an animal, to get rid of the evil from the previous 12 months and bring in good luck for the New Year:

… Night of Blows, referred to the custom which saw a man wearing a cow hide or sheepskin accompanied by a group called the Hogmanay Lads, and a piper.

“They would gain entrance to the house, there might have been some rhymes or songs, and then the person in the animal skin would run round the central hearth three times while everyone in the house beat him with whatever they could get their hands on,” adds Bob.

A form of ‘first footing’, once the good-natured beating was done, the group would be offered refreshments and sent to the next household.

The aforementioned Galoshins play was performed in the south of Scotland along the same theme.

The Scotsman explains that these traditions are a way of creating a clean slate for the next 12 months. Renewing friendships is important at this time:

Those who make it inside to the Hogmanay party will typically receive well-humoured greetings and conversation, as Hogmanay is traditionally seen as a time to move on from the problems and troubles of the previous year and start again with a clean slate.

In addition, Robert Burns’s world-famous “Auld Lang Syne” may be sung after the New Year bells have tolled. This is historically done with singers holding hands in a circle, before crossing their arms over their chest towards their immediate neighbours and rushing towards the middle to finish the song.

The Reformation: banning Christmas in favour of Hogmanay

The Scotsman gives us an overview of how Christmas disappeared for centuries north of the border:

… Christmas in Scotland was a very muted affair for over 300 years, as it was seen as a Catholic festival by Scottish Protestant kirks and duly banned after the Reformation.

Dr Alan MacDonald, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Dundee, explains. He said: “The principal reason why Hogmanay is bigger in Scotland than in the rest of the UK is that our Reformation was more radical than in other places in Europe. A lot of Medieval European traditions were dropped, including Christmas, so a lot of Scots took the view that the only day worth celebrating for religion was Sunday.

“The reason for everyone celebrating new year was that people needed something to make them happy and they weren’t allowed to celebrate Christmas!”

As well as banning the celebration of Christmas, Scotland was one of the earliest nations to change its New Year’s day from 25 March [as it was in England at the time] to 1 January; marking a clear moment in winter where one year ended and one began. Crucially, though, it gave the nation another event to celebrate that was culturally distinct from Christmas and its Catholic connotations, with presents exchanged and family and friends reuniting during Hogmanay.

The Herald has more on the Kirk — the Church of Scotland — banning Christmas in 1560:

Stretching from before Christmas to the end of January, Bob says it was a sustained period of merriment, mischief, music, bonfires and quite a bit of cross-dressing.

Good as it sounds, not all were on board.

Unhappy with all this fun, with the Reformation in full swing and to reinforce their anti-Papist stance, the Kirk pulled the plug on any celebration of Christmas in 1560.

Now denied the opportunity to lark around during much of December, Scots turned their attentions to New Year.

“You have a clamp down on people having fun,” says Bob. “Because New Year is not a religious feast, you can’t get hammered for doing it.

“So, everything gets concentrated on New Year.

“All the stuff that happened over a protracted period of four or five weeks just before Christmas and to the end of January, gets concentrated around New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the following Monday.”

Even then, the Kirk meted out punishments:

… the Kirk tried to impose its will: Kirk Session records from Elgin, showed on 30th December, 1598, one George Kay and his friend Archie Hay were summoned and accused of dancing and guising.

George, it stated, confessed to dressing up in his sister’s coat and joining others with blackened faces, playing ‘drums’ using animal bones and ringing bells.

“Drink had been taken as well,” Bob adds …

“They were ordered to ‘make repentance’ at the kirk and stand before the congregation bare foot and with bare legs for punishment.”

The following year the Kirk Session at Chanonry recorded efforts to stop “footballing, snowballing, singing of carols and other profane songs, guising, piping, violining and dancing”, he adds.

Christmas was restored as a Scottish holiday only in 1958!

The Herald continues:

By the time the ban on marking Christmas was withdrawn in the late 17th century – it would take until the 1950s to become a public holiday in Scotland – the nation had already embraced the New Year period.

And “the daft days” of high celebration, feasting, guising, dressing up and excess were set in stone for generations to come …

It took until 1958 for Christmas to become a bank holiday in Scotland, but Hogmanay was already sealed as the Scottish winter festival.

Street parties

The Herald has splendid photos, old and new, of Hogmanay celebrations over the past century, at home and in public.

The highlight was Glasgow’s 1938 celebration in George Square, a pre-eminent New Year’s street party:

… across the country, new traditions had been forged: crowds in towns and cities gathered at town clocks and mercat crosses [market crosses] for ‘the bells’ and to party together.

These days, much focus is on Edinburgh. But on Hogmanay 1938, all eyes were on George Square in Glasgow for the city’s first council- organised Hogmanay street party, and the largest celebration in Britain at the time.

More than 50,000 revellers – some suggested twice that number – gathered on a cold, misty evening, singing loudly as the year drifted away.

The Glasgow Herald of January 2, 1939, reported how the celebration, previously focused around Glasgow Cross, created a “novel, carnival atmosphere”.

“The setting was gay and colourful, the trees throughout the square were festooned with multi-coloured lights, while fairy lights were eloped between the columns.

“Close to the Cenotaph, gas flares pierced the darkness.”

Searchlights from Maryhill Barracks and transport depots at Possilpark and Larkfield scanned the sky even though the mist meant a midnight fly past had to be scrapped. 

Nevertheless, the crowd sang, brass and pipe bands played, and a street vendor did a roaring trade in paper hats.

However, there was a sense of solemnity as the Second World War began:

Lights dimmed and then beamed brightly again – a signal to the crowd to pay respects to the passing of the old year.

With the new one approaching – a dreadful one, as war engulfed Europe – the crowd fell silent to listen to gentle renditions of Lead, Kindly Light and Abide With Me.

Inside the City Chambers, having just wished the crowd happy new year, the Lord Provost of the time was greeted by a 14-year-old Jewish refugee who had arrived from Vienna.

Handing over a silver horseshoe for luck, he said: “I thank your city on behalf of the refugee children for its great kindness to us and I hope you will have peace and prosperity.”

On a happier note, in 2023, Scots, along with tourists from around the world, rang in 2024 with another huge street party in their capital city, Edinburgh.

The BBC reports that thousands watched the fireworks at midnight:

After several days of weather warnings, it was a clear cold night for most.

Visitors from more than 80 countries gathered in Edinburgh where Britpop band Pulp [English!] headlined a concert in Princes Street Gardens.

The city’s programme of events started on Friday with the return of the torchlight procession after an absence of four years.

Funding difficulties meant it was missing in 2022 and the Covid pandemic saw it cancelled in 2020 and 2021.

About 20,000 people watched the “river of fire” make its way from the Meadows park throughout the Old Town to beneath Edinburgh Castle.

Al Thomson from Unique Assembly, which organised the events, told BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Hogmanay morning that the 2023 party would be closer to the big events the city held before the pandemic.

Finally, a return to normality for Hogmanay.