The Highland Hogmanay
Winter is dark in the Scottish Highlands and islands. Shetland averages fewer than six hours from sunrise to sunset in late December, and the more southerly Inverness gets only an extra 45 minutes. When the air is barbed and the scenery is bleak, new year festivities offer a rousing reminder that the light will return.
Today Scots celebrate by drinking in the streets, peering at fireworks through a haze of drizzle, sharing midnight kisses and uniting in spirited – if not always comprehensible – renditionsof Auld Lang Syne.Butover the centuries, the Scots have welcomed the new year in a wide variety of ways. In most areas, Hogmanay has long constituted the biggest community event on the calendar – often bigger by far than Christmas.
To understand how Hogmanay
