The Hogmanay

The Scots celebrate Hogmanay on the night of December 31st. It is a time for people to welcome the coming of the new year. Preparations for Hogmanay begin at the end of November when Christmas trees are decorated with colourful ornaments and twinkling lights. Shortbread biscuits and black buns – a kind of rich fruit cakes – are baked. On Auld Year’s Night people dress smartly in their best outfists. They also wear any tartan clothes they might have. They gather in town suares and wait for midnight. Many attend parties have traditional folk music fills the air as people perform Scottish country dances. At midnight the clock strikes twelve and the clanging sound of bells ringing can be heard. Everyone cheers, shouts and sings. They kiss each other and drink a glass of Scotch whisky. Then the merry-makers go “first footing”: they visit their friends to wish them a happy new year. It is believed that it’s good luck the first foot to enter someone’s house in the new year belongs to a tall, dark, handsome man. First footers carry a piece of coal with them as a good luck present.