Hogmanay — Scotland’s True Midwinter Festival

A Hogmanay Ceilidh underway in a Croft in the 19th century

For families in the Highlands and Islands — including places like the Isle of Mull — New Year’s Eve was historically the most important annual winter festival. Known in Scotland as Hogmanay, this celebration on 31 December (New Year’s Eve) drew community focus far more than Christmas Day in the 19th century.

The Date and Why It Mattered

While Scotland officially used the Gregorian calendar from 1600, and January 1 was legally New Year’s Day by the 1860s, many rural and Gaelic-speaking communities preserved older traditions. In places like Mull:

Some families continued to mark the New Year according to “Old Style” customs, influenced by the Julian calendar and older Yule/Yule‑to‑Epiphany observances.

This meant celebrations could extend beyond 1 January, sometimes including Old Christmas / Epiphany on 6 January, and even into mid-January (~12 January) for Old Style New Year or Handsel Monday festivities.

Thus, while Hogmanay was observed on 31 December, the “turn of the year” in local social practice could last for nearly two weeks, blending official and traditional dates.

How It Was Traditionally Observed

Although celebrations varied by region, longstanding Hogmanay customs around the 1860s would have included:

First‑Footing:

At or just after midnight, the first visitor to enter a home — called the first‑footer — was believed to bring luck for the year ahead. Ideally this was a tall, dark‑haired man bearing symbolic gifts like coal (for warmth), shortbread (for food), whisky (for cheer), and sometimes black bun (a rich fruit cake wrapped in pastry) — foods and gifts meant to ensure prosperity and wellbeing.

Redding the House:

Before midnight, families often cleaned and “redded” their homes from top to bottom — sweeping and clearing ash from the hearth — to symbolically sweep away the old year’s troubles and welcome the new one. (visitscotland.com)

Singing at Midnight:

As clocks struck midnight, gatherings joined in song, most famously “Auld Lang Syne” — a Scots poem set to traditional melody and widely sung at Hogmanay to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new.

Fire and Ancient Rituals:

In some communities, ancient fire rituals symbolized purification and the return of light after the longest nights of winter. Modern torchlight processions, bonfires and fireworks have roots in these older traditions of kindling light to drive away darkness and ill fortune.

Why Hogmanay Overshadowed Christmas

Christmas had been downplayed — and often discouraged — by the dominant Presbyterian Church for centuries, Scots instead devoted winter festivity to welcoming the New Year. Even into the mid‑1800s, this pattern held strong, making Hogmanay not just a party but a cultural anchor in the coldest season.

For crofter families on Mull, this meant that while Hogmanay officially began on 31 December, local observances could stretch into early or mid-January, overlapping with Old Christmas (6 January) or the Old Style New Year (~12 January). This created a long festive season, blending community ritual, superstition, and Gaelic tradition.