Hogmanay

Hogmanay, a name applied in Scotland to the last day of the year, the 31st of December, often celebrated with holiday festivities in connection with the New-year's Day. In the Scotland of former days it marked the commencement of a holiday of uproarious joviality, a kind of annual Saturnalia, in which the New Year was ushered in with the most boisterous revelry, accompanied by many quaint and time-honoured ceremonies. The origin of this name is altogether uncertain, and many idle etymologies have been offered. These the curious will find in Chambers's Book of Days.