Editing Hogmanay (section)

==Customs==
There are many customs, both national and local, associated with Hogmanay. The most widespread national custom is the practice of [[first-footing]], which starts immediately after midnight. This involves being the first person to cross the threshold of a friend or neighbour and often involves the giving of symbolic gifts such as [[salt]] (less common today), [[coal]], [[shortbread]], [[whisky]], and [[black bun]] (a rich [[fruit cake]]), intended to bring different kinds of luck to the householder. Food and drink (as the gifts) are then given to the guests. This may go on throughout the early morning hours and into the next day (although modern days see people visiting houses well into the middle of January). The first-foot is supposed to set the luck for the rest of the year. Traditionally, tall, dark-haired men are preferred as the first-foot.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/highlandsandislands/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8434000/8434760.stm|title=Hogmanay traditions, old and new|publisher=BBC|date=30 December 2015}}</ref>

===Local customs===

[[File:Stonehave fireballs 2003.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Stonehaven]] Fireballs Ceremony 2003]][[File:Catalonian Sun Goddess.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Catalan Sun Goddess from the Hogmanay Street Party, [[Edinburgh]] 2005]]
An example of a local Hogmanay custom is the fireball swinging that takes place in [[Stonehaven]], [[Aberdeenshire]], in northeast Scotland. This involves local people making up "balls" of chicken wire filled with old newspaper, sticks, rags, and other dry flammable material up to a diameter of {{convert|2|ft}}, each attached to about {{convert|3|ft}} of wire, chain or nonflammable rope. As the [[Stonehaven Town House|Old Town House]] bell sounds to mark the new year, the balls are set alight, and the swingers set off up the High Street from the Mercat Cross to the Cannon and back, swinging the burning balls around their heads as they go.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stonehaven Fireballs {{!}} Stonehaven's way to greet the new year|url=https://stonehavenfireballs.co.uk/|access-date=2020-12-14|website=stonehavenfireballs.co.uk}}</ref>

At the end of the ceremony, fireballs still burning are cast into the harbour. Many people enjoy this display, and large crowds flock to see it,<ref name= "StonehavenFireballs">[http://www.stonehavenfireballs.co.uk/ Stonehaven Fireball Association] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002212956/http://www.stonehavenfireballs.co.uk/ |date=2 October 2011 }} photos and videos of festivities. Retrieved 31 December 2017.</ref> with 12,000 attending the 2007/2008 event.<ref name="pandj">[http://www.thisisaberdeen.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=148760&command=displayContent&sourceNode=148586&contentPK=19422957&folderPk=85349&pNodeId=148317 Aberdeen Press and Journal]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} 2 January 2018. "around 12,000 turned out in Stonehaven to watch the town's traditional fireball ceremony." Retrieved 3 January 2008.</ref> In recent years, additional attractions have been added to entertain the crowds as they wait for midnight, such as [[Fire dancing|fire poi]], a [[pipe band]], street drumming, and a firework display after the last fireball is cast into the sea. The festivities are now [[livestreaming|streamed live]] over the Internet.<ref name="StonehavenFireballs" /> 
Another example of a fire festival is the [[burning the clavie]] in the town of [[Burghead]] in [[Moray]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Burning of the Clavie, Burghead Moray|url=http://www.burghead.com/clavie/|access-date=2021-05-17|website=Burghead Visitor Centre|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In the east coast fishing communities and [[Dundee]], first-footers once carried a decorated [[herring]]. And in [[Falkland, Fife|Falkland]] in [[Fife]], local men marched in torchlight procession to the top of the [[Lomond Hills]] as midnight approached. Bakers in [[St Andrews]] baked special cakes for their Hogmanay celebration (known as "Cake Day") and distributed them to local children.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: cake|url=https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/cake|access-date=2021-05-17}}</ref>

Institutions also had their own traditions. For example, amongst the Scottish regiments, officers waited on the men at special dinners while at the bells, the Old Year is piped out of barrack gates. The sentry then challenges the new escort outside the gates: "Who goes there?" The answer is "The New Year, all's well."<ref name="visitscotland">'[http://www.visitscotland.com/library/hogmanaytraditions Hogmanay Traditions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217033654/http://www.visitscotland.com/library/hogmanaytraditions |date=17 December 2007 }}' at ''[http://www.visitscotland.com Scotland's Tourism Board]''. Retrieved 21 December 2007.</ref>

An old custom in the Highlands is to celebrate Hogmanay with the ''[[saining]]'' ([[Scots language|Scots]] for 'protecting, blessing') of the household and livestock. Early on New Year's morning, householders drink and then sprinkle 'magic water' from 'a dead and living [[Ford (crossing)|ford]]' around the house (a 'dead and living ford' refers to a river ford that is routinely crossed by both the living and the dead). After the sprinkling of the water in every room, on the beds and all the inhabitants, the house is sealed up tight and branches of juniper are set on fire and carried throughout the house and byre. The juniper smoke is allowed to thoroughly fumigate the buildings until it causes sneezing and coughing among the inhabitants. Then, all the doors and windows are flung open to let in the cold, fresh air of the new year. The woman of the house then administers 'a restorative' from the whisky bottle, and the household sits down to its New Year breakfast.<ref>{{Cite book| first =F. Marian | last =McNeill | author-link = F. Marian McNeill | year =1961 | title =The Silver Bough, Vol.3: A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals, Halloween to Yule  | chapter =X Hogmany Rites and Superstitions | page =113 | publisher =William MacLellan | location =Glasgow| isbn =0-948474-04-1 }}</ref>

=== "Auld Lang Syne"===
{{main|Auld Lang Syne}}
[[File:John Masey Wright - John Rogers - Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John Masey Wright]] and John Rogers' c. 1841 illustration of ''[[Auld Lang Syne]]''.]]
The Hogmanay custom of singing "Auld Lang Syne" has become common in many countries. "Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem by [[Robert Burns]], based on traditional and other earlier sources. It is common to sing this in a circle of linked arms crossed over one another as the clock strikes midnight for New Year's Day. However, it is only intended that participants link arms at the beginning of the final verse before rushing into the centre as a group.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Auld Lang Syne could be lost as only 3 percent know the words |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/auld-lang-syne-could-be-lost-as-only-3-per-cent-know-the-words-1-4648493 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228080914/https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/auld-lang-syne-could-be-lost-as-only-3-per-cent-know-the-words-1-4648493 |archive-date=2017-12-28 |access-date=2019-01-17 |website=www.scotsman.com |language=en}}</ref>