Why is New Year's Eve a bigger deal in Scotland?

Pagan Scots marked the year end at Samhain, when the harvest was in and the sun was weakening.

Later Scots celebrated the midwinter yule festival and this continued after Catholicism became the nation’s religion. Yule was a time of gluttony and revelry, with bonfires, guising, house-visiting and hospitality lasting for an extended period known as 'the daft days’.

With the Protestant reformation in 1560, reformers began banning, discouraging or suppressing mass, feast days and other traditions associated with the Catholic Church, including Christ’s Mass - Christmas.

By 1640, an Act of Parliament officially abolished the ‘yule vacance’, the Christmas break. This likely had the result of focusing yule festivities and customs on New Year.

The Act was partly repealed in the late 17th Century, but did little to overturn the diminished role of Christmas in Scotland. Reformers worshipped only at times specifically commanded in the Bible and there was no scriptural evidence for December 25th as Christ’s birth date.

So for Scots, New Year remained the main opportunity for merriment during dark winter months. This was the case until relatively recently, because it wasn’t until 1958 that Christmas became a public holiday in Scotland, in common with the rest of the UK.

Hogmanay is steeped in tradition, but where do the customs come from and what do they mean?

The popular belief is that the dark stranger at the door is a response to the Viking invasions, when the arrival of a blond man would indicate imminent danger. It’s also commonly thought that the first foot should bring gifts of black bun and a lump of coal to ensure sufficient food and a warm home in the year ahead.

However, it’s likely that these rituals are older and come from a Samhain visiting custom to do with entering the dark half of the year and interaction with the mysterious realm of darkness.

Both Samhain and New Year customs are about luck-bringing visitors, trying to determine the future, and looking backwards and forwards in time at this 'in between' point of the year.

So people expect – indeed hope - to receive a visitor from the darkness, who they will invite in and ‘neutralise’ with hospitality and food. They accept the darkness, but are always looking ahead to the return of a strong sun and resurgent nature in the coming months.

Hogmanay remains an important holiday in Scotland. In recent years celebrations have centred on organised city centre street parties, and the tradition of first footing is arguably less popular. But some festivities, including Stonehaven’s fireball ritual and the Comrie Flambeaux, continue to reflect the ancient Scots’ New Year customs of responding to the encroaching darkness.