Throughout the year and throughout the country, are celebrations that are unique and distinctive to Scotland. Starting with the New Year or Hogmanay, the Scots have a long abounding heritage associated with this event. Hogmanay partying to welcome in the New Year with friends and strangers continues to this day, the underlying incentive: to clear out the vestiges of the old year, make a clean break and welcome in the New Year on a happy note.

Traditional New Year Celebrations would include lighting of bonfires, tossing torches and rolling blazing tar barrels down hills.

It is traditional, in Scotland, to go first-footing on Hogmonay with a lump of coal (for luck) and a dram of whiskey. To ensure good luck for the home for the rest of the year the first footer should be male and dark.

Ticketed festivals in Edinburgh and Glasgow attract hundreds of thousands of party-goers each New Year with torchlight processions, music and fireworks making for a dazzling and convivial start to the year.

Top Secular Celebrations in Scotland in January ~

The Burning of the Clavie takes place on January 11th in Burghead, marking the original hogmanay before the calendar was changed in 1660. The ‘clavie’, a barrel filled with wood shavings and tar is nailed onto a carrying post then after being lit, ten men at a time take turns to carry the burning clavie clockwise around the streets of Burghead and then to the Doorie Hill where the Celtic Druids used to light their fires.

On the last Tuesday of January in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, people dress as Viking warriors and a full sized Viking Galley is pulled by a torch-bearing procession to the beach where the galley is set alight by eight hundred blazing torches. While on the 25th January throughout Scotland and the Borders, Burns Night celebrates the poetry and life of Robert Burns with the traditional Burns Supper.

Top Secular Celebrations in Scotland in February and March ~

An ancient custom in Scotland on 2nd February (Candlemas Day) which marks the midpoint of winter, was also known as the Feast of Lights. This was when children brought candles into the classrooms so as to bring light to a dull February day. The children would give money to their teacher who bought them sweets and cakes.

On Shrove Tuesday in Scotland beef would be eaten to ensure household prosperity. Throughout Scotland on the last Tuesday before Lent carnivals and festivals with varying names including Beef Brose, Bannock Night and Shriften E’en would use up all the left-over meat, butter and fat and included in these celebrations in some regions was a rowdy game of football.

Then on the 1st March in Lanark, a vociferous and boisterous celebration involving the youth of the area called “Whppity Scorrie” was meant to drive away evil spirits.

Top Secular Celebrations in Scotland in April, May and June ~

Now called April’s Fool Day, traditionally in Scotland on the 1st day of April “Hunting the Gowk” would involve sending someone on a foolish errand. During the first or third Saturday of the month children in Ayrshire would go to Cawfurdland Castle to pick daffodils.

The week-long festival in Dumfries held in mid June, “Guid Nychburris” was intended to encourage neighbourliness among the people and then at some time in June or July in many areas including Selkirk, Langholm, Hawick, Peebles, Annan and Linlighgow is the Common Riding. Spectacular to witness, hundreds of horsemen and women “ride the marches” to check landmarks, cairns and other features have not been removed or tampered with.

On the last two weeks of June is held the Glasgow Fair when traditionally many Glaswegians took their fornightly holidays off work and in Victorian times the Glasgow Fair was the major summer holiday event for many Scots.

Top Secular Celebrations in Scotland in the Summer and Autumn ~

1st August is Lamas, the Festival of Corn and also a day when in days of old rents were collected, contracts agreed on and servants hired. Still a Quarter Day in Scotland, fairs would be held at the start of August for people looking for work or for employers and landowners looking to hire servants or farm workers.

Lammastide was also a season of fairs, festivities and celebrations in Scotland. The first cut of the harvest was made on Lammas Day when people would dress in their finest clothes and go out into the fields to give thanks to the god of the harvest.

During this season of mock battles, the Highland Games held as a celebration of Scottish and Celtic Culture include a program of dancing, piping, throwing the hammer, running and caber tossing. 

The Edinburgh Festival in mid-August bringss people from all over the globe together to celebrate their shared passion for music, culture and the arts. Included in these festivities are the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, Edinburgh Mela Festival (celebrating people, places and cultures around the world) and one of the world’s greatest shows, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Top Secular Celebrations in Scotland in the Winter ~

Scotland celebrates the winter with Fire Celebrations and these are held throughout the country at various times during this cold season. Halloween is celebrated with bonfires and children dressed in costume visiting their neighbours with ‘tattie bogles’ or ‘neep lanterns.’

On the 5th November, Bonfire Night is celebrated in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, to remember Guy Fawke’s attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

The following website: festivals in Scotland gives links to various articles about Scottish festivals and Celebrations.