Hogmanay
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the old year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day and, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. In a few contexts, the word Hogmanay is used more loosely to describe the entire period consisting of the last few days of the old year and the first few days of the new year. For instance, not all events held under the banner of Edinburgh's Hogmanay take place on 31st of December.
Customs vary throughout Scotland and usually include gift-giving and visiting the homes of friends and neighbours, with particular attention given to the first-foot, the first guest of the new year.
Etymology
The etymology of the word is obscure. The earliest proposed etymology comes from the 1693 Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, which held that the term was a corruption of a presumed and that this meant "holy month". The three main modern theories derive it from a French, Norse or Gaelic root.The word is first recorded in a Latin entry in 1443 in the West Riding of Yorkshire as hagnonayse. The first appearance in Scots language came in 1604 in the records of Elgin, as hagmonay. Subsequent 17th-century spellings include Hagmena, Hogmynae night, and Hagmane in an entry of the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence.
Although Hogmanay is currently the predominant spelling and pronunciation, several variant spellings and pronunciations have been recorded, including:
Possible French etymologies
The term may have been introduced to Middle Scots via French. The most commonly cited explanation is a derivation from the northern French dialectal word hoguinané, or variants such as hoginane, hoginono and hoguinettes, those being derived from 16th-century Middle French aguillanneuf meaning either a gift given at New Year, a children's cry for such a gift, or New Year's Eve itself. The Oxford English Dictionary reports this theory, saying that the term is a borrowing of aguillanneuf a medieval French cry used to welcome the new year consisting of an unknown first element plus "l'an neuf".This explanation is supported by a children's tradition, observed up to the 1960s in parts of Scotland at least, of visiting houses in their locality on New Year's Eve and requesting and receiving small treats such as sweets or fruit. The second element would appear to be l'an neuf, with sources suggesting a druidical origin of the practice overall. Compare those to Norman hoguinané and the obsolete customs in Jersey of crying ma hodgîngnole, and in Guernsey of asking for an oguinane, for a New Year gift. In Québec, la guignolée was a door-to-door collection for people experiencing poverty.
Compare also the apparent Spanish cognate aguinaldo/aguilando, with a suggested Latin derivation of hoc in anno "in this year".
Other suggestions include au wikt:gui#French, à , au gui l'an neuf homme est né.
Possible Goidelic etymologies
The word may have come from the Goidelic languages. Frazer and Kelley report a Manx new-year song that begins with the line To-night is New Year's Night, Hogunnaa but did not record the full text in Manx. Kelley himself uses the spelling Og-u-naa... Tro-la-la whereas other sources parse this as hog-un-naa and give the modern Manx form as Hob dy naa. Manx dictionaries though give Hop-tu-Naa, generally glossing it as "Hallowe'en", same as many of the more Manx-specific folklore collections.In this context, it is also recorded that in the south of Scotland, there is no, the word thus being Hunganay, which could suggest the is intrusive.
Another theory occasionally encountered is a derivation from the phrase thog mi an èigh/eugh, which resembles Hogmanay in pronunciation and was part of the rhymes traditionally recited at New Year but it is unclear if this is simply a case of folk etymology.
Overall, Gaelic consistently refers to the New Year's Eve as Oidhche na Bliadhn Ùir and Oidhche Challainn.
Possible Norse etymologies
Other authors reject both the French and Goidelic theories and instead suggest that the ultimate source for this word's Norman French, Scots, and Goidelic variants have a common Norse root. It is suggested that the full forms- "Hoginanaye-Trollalay/Hogman aye, Troll a lay"
- "Hogmanay, Trollolay, give us of your white bread and none of your gray"
Possible Scots etymology
In 1865 correspondence, the question was raised whether the word Hogmanay derived from hogman, a type of inferior bread, regarded as "strangers' bread" or "alms bread". This connection is rooted in much older history; hogman was first recorded in circa 1320 as the lowest of three distinct grades of loaves donated by Robert the Bruce to the canons of Restenneth Priory, as written in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland.This connection was further clarified in 1888 correspondence, where a contributor named 'A Fifer' noted that in Fife, the day was not known as Hogmanay but was instead called Cake-day. This name referred to the cakes traditionally distributed when children and the poor went door-to-door. Likewise, the author suggested that in other parts of Scotland, the name evolved from Hogman-day, eventually softened to Hogmanay, referring to the hogman given out in the same way.
More recently, in 1992, it was noted how the traditional rhyme - 'Gi’e us a piece o your white bread, And eke a bittoc o’ your grey, Wi’ brown laif dawds for Hogmanay' - directly reflected this same historic record of three different grades of loaves, with the least desirable left for Hogmanay.
Origins
It is speculated that the roots of Hogmanay may reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Norse, as well as incorporating customs from the Gaelic celebration of Samhain. The Vikings celebrated Yule, which later contributed to the Twelve Days of Christmas, or the "Daft Days" as they were sometimes called in Scotland. Christmas was not celebrated as a festival, and Hogmanay was the more traditional celebration in Scotland. This may have been a result of the Protestant Reformation after which Christmas was seen as "too Papist".Hogmanay was also celebrated in the north of England, down to and including Richmond in North Yorkshire. It was traditionally known as 'Hagmena' in Northumberland, 'Hogmina' in Cumberland, and 'Hagman-ha' or 'Hagman-heigh' in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
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, coal, shortbread, whisky, and black bun, intended to bring different kinds of luck to the householder. Food and drink are then given to the guests. This may go on throughout the early morning hours and into the next day. 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.Local customs
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, each attached to about of wire, chain or nonflammable rope. As the 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.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, with 12,000 attending the 2007/2008 event. In recent years, additional attractions have been added to entertain the crowds as they wait for midnight, such as fire poi, a pipe band, street drumming, and a firework display after the last fireball is cast into the sea. The festivities are now streamed live over the Internet.
Another example of a fire festival is the burning the clavie in the town of Burghead in Moray.
In the east coast fishing communities and Dundee, first-footers once carried a decorated herring. And in 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 and distributed them to local children.
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."
An old custom in the Highlands is to celebrate Hogmanay with the saining of the household and livestock. Early on New Year's morning, householders drink and then sprinkle 'magic water' from 'a dead and living ford' around the house. 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.