Merriam-Webster Definition of Hogmanay: (Scotland) the eve of New Year’s Day

New Year’s Eve in the United States is a time revered for ending a year with bad decisions (usually too much drinking that leads to other poor choices) and then flipping over a page to start the new year with a clean slate. It marks the end of the holiday season and often is the death knell of school breaks and work vacations. Personally, there has never been much stake for me in New Year’s Eve traditions other than it being another moment to spend time with family and friends, knowing thousands of people (2020 excluded) are crammed together in Times Square wearing adult diapers while waiting for the ball to drop. The entire setup is an extrovert orgy that I am one-hundred percent okay missing. Overall, New Year’s Eve typically receives a vanilla endorsement from me, yet each year I try to think of new ways to make the day more meaningful. Each year my hopes are left adrift.

At the end of 2020, I was exposed to the word “Hogmanay”, which is the Scottish New Year’s Eve celebration. If the ball drop in Times Square could serve as a fascinating study of human psychology and an individual’s ability to endure degrading, uncomfortable elements in the name of experiencing something they perceive as “fun”, Hogmanay sounds like the coordinated and cordial eruption of suppressed medieval desires that people blow out of their systems in order to embrace their humanity throughout the rest of the year. Hogmanay is steeped in tradition that involves viking lore, fire, and dancing across events known as “first-footing”, “Saining”, and “Loony Dook”. Though I significantly over-simplified and generalized the totality of Hogmanay, it is important to note that each event has a purpose and interesting origin, discernible even with brief investigation.

While it sounds like I would need to find my wild side to truly enjoy Hogmanay, I am intrigued. Experiencing the celebration is a good excuse to get back to the beauty of Scotland and spend more time in Edinburgh, a beautiful city that was only able to serve as a stopover during my only visit thus far to Europe. Also, being able to witness New Year’s Eve with purpose could scratch that itch to make the end of the year more meaningful.

The definition: https://tinyurl.com/1njrytco

The traditions: https://tinyurl.com/1d6oqk5i