Scotland's great and ancient Hogmanay traditions that still inspire our party today

New Year in Scotland is known the world over, but its roots are based in the home, in community, in merriment - and the protection of the things of most value.

The turning of the New Year was always the celebration of choice in Scotland, with Christmas a more dour affair given the religious piety dispensed by the Kirk following the Reformation.

People singing Auld Lang's Syne during New Year at the Tron, Edinburgh 1964. The Scots have long regarded Hogmanay as the festive celebration of choice. | TSPL

By the 1800s, people had become more relaxed about observing Christmas and indeed the 12 days between Christmas and Twelfth night were given over to merriment and excess, with the period hailed as the “daft days” by 17th-century Scots poet Robert Fergusson.

It was a time devoted to friendly festivities and expressions of goodwill and a sense of licence for enjoyment.

From the Western Isles to Orkney and to the farms of the lowlands, you’ll find accounts of rituals, tradition and a sense of the wild as people indulged their freedom to celebrate.

From tales of men wandering from house to house disguised as cows, to stories of standing stones that started to move at the stroke of midnight to the long, perhaps more familiar, boozy night as extra days off work were enjoyed to the full, New Year was Scotland’s party.

In Gaelic speaking areas, Hogmanay was referred to as either oidhche Choinnle (‘Night of the Candle) or oidhche nan Callainnean (‘Night of the Blows’). The latter may be linked to a ritual that involved a man having a dry cow hide placed over his head before being beaten like a drum as he and his friends moved around their home village to receive a dram, bannocks and a piece of cheese. If the cheese had a hole in it, it was considered extra lucky.

As the party moved around the houses, the idea was to “drown the animosities of the past year in hilarity and merriment”. First footing remains a key part of New Year tradition and, in the past, it was considered unlucky if the first guest after midnight was a woman.

Fire and light played a central role in belief and customs surrounding New Year. It was feared that letting the fire go out would invite bad luck into the home, with only householders – or a friend – allowed to tend it. If a fire went out, it was considered most unlucky.

In many districts on New Year’s Day, no help would be given to a neighbour to restart their flame. Letting the flame go out was broadly considered as giving away a gift from the gods.

New Year’s Day, like the first of every quarter of the year, was a great ‘saining’ day across the Highlands and Islands when rituals were at their most intense to protect cattle and houses from evil. Juniper was burnt in the byre, animals were marked with tar, the houses were decked with mountain ash and the door-posts and walls and even the cattle were sprinkled with wine.

In Orkney, there are legends of giants being turned into standing stones, which then moved when the clock struck midnight on December 31. In Rousay, the Yetnaseen, which translates as Giant Stone, is said to come to life and walk 300 yards to the Loch of Stockness to drink water, before turning to stone once again.