Happy Hogmanay, you say?

Hogmanay (pronounced: Hog-MA-nay) is what New Year’s Eve celebrations are called in Scotland.

Thanks to a gift membership to the National Trust for Scotland*, I was able to join a recent webinar they Scottish Winter Traditions where I learned that Hogmanay has been celebrated as a multi-day holiday for centuries. In some ways, it’s been linked to the ancient pagan celebrations of Winter Solstice and grew in importance when, in the Protestant Reformation, Christmas was banned as a holiday in order to distance themselves from Roman Catholic traditions. It remained banned for quite a long time and it was only in 1958 when Christmas Day became a public holiday in Scotland.

Hogmanay became and important way to celebrate in these dark months (indeed dark with sunrise only at 8:45am and sunset already at 3:45pm!) with celebrations that lasted for a number of days and nights and featured bonfires, music and poetry.

It appears a number of Scottish cities and towns retain these traditions with special commemorations. Hopefully next year we will all be celebrating normally again . . . For this first Scottish New Year, we had a quiet dinner at home with some delicious mussels from the Scotland’s Shetland Islands. Not so bad at all.

Happy Hogmanay – Happy New Year to you!! I wish you a healthy and happy 2021!

*Thank you, Food Export, for this wonderful gift!