Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The eve of New Year's Day, on which children traditionally go from house to house asking for presents.
  • noun A present requested or given on this day.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See hogmenay.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Scot. The old name, in Scotland, for the last day of the year, on which children go about singing, and receive a dole of bread or cakes; also, the entertainment given on that day to a visitor, or the gift given to an applicant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Scotland New Year's Eve.
  • proper noun Scotland A celebration or gift for New Year's Eve.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun New Year's Eve in Scotland

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Scots

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Examples

  • In Scotland, the festival celebrating the new year is called Hogmanay – a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath (Holy Month), and the Gaelic, oge maiden (new morning).

    Celebrating the New Year Joanna Waugh 2008

  • In Scotland, the festival celebrating the new year is called Hogmanay – a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath (Holy Month), and the Gaelic, oge maiden (new morning).

    Archive 2008-12-01 Joanna Waugh 2008

  • I have never participated in Hogmanay, which is the name given to Scottish New Year celebrations, and which has its own traditions and customs.

    Archive 2006-01-01 2006

  • I have never participated in Hogmanay, which is the name given to Scottish New Year celebrations, and which has its own traditions and customs.

    Scottish Black Bun - Happy New Year! 2006

  • But the thing about it is, it is known that it came from northern France -- from Normandy, Brittany, from the very Celtic region for France -- and that there is a ceremony, an event very similar to it in Scotland and in Ireland, called the Hogmanay, that happens around New Year's, when they sing a song that is similar to the Guillanée.

    Old Mines Music 2004

  • The writer of the last account speaks of the "breast-strip" as the "Hogmanay," and it is just possible that the well-known Hogmanay processions of children on New Year's Eve (in Scotland and elsewhere) may have some connection with the ritual above described.

    Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Clement A. Miles

  • But I'd have passed on any kind of Hogmanay hoolie, black tie or black fishnets.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010

  • They'll earn their fare across the ocean with a series of performances, including "Hogmanay,"

    Addison County Independent - Covering the 23 towns of Addison County, Vermont 2009

  • It is customary for the poorer children to swaddle themselves in a great sheet, doubled up in front so as to form a vast pocket, and then go along the streets in little bands, calling out "Hogmanay" at the doors of the wealthier classes, and expecting a dole of oaten bread.

    Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Clement A. Miles

  • In some parts it was called "The Galatians," to be sure, I say was, because one never sees it now-a-days, though fifty years ago, under the one designation or the other, it was played annually by the Hogmanay guizards, who, dressed for the occasion, set it forth with deliciously unsophisticated swagger and bluster in every house they visited that had a kitchen floor broad and wide enough for the operation.

    Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories A Book for Bairns and Big Folk Robert Ford

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