Do you know the story behind what has made Hogmanay one of the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve parties?
According to a new tour just launched in Edinburgh, it can all be traced back to some Scrooge-like legislation written in the late 16th century.
It seems surprising, but celebrating Christmas was banned in Scotland all the way from 1575 to 1958 (yes, nineteen fifty-eight!)
Why, you may reasonably ask. Well, the Protestant rulers of the time deemed Christ’s mass to be a Popish or Catholic ritual, banning it immediately.
For almost 400 years, Christmas was just an ordinary day for Scots. It wasn’t even a public holiday. You could almost say that a traditional Scottish Christmas Day is a working day.
Celebrations moved to Hogmanay instead and it is believed these early merrymakers paved the way for the massive New Year’s Eve that takes place in the capital nowadays.
The tour is run by The Real Mary King’s Close. The award-winning attraction centres around a hidden warren of streets slash tunnels that lie below the Royal Mile.
Finally opened to the public in 2003, the underground passageways had lay forgotten beneath the city’s busiest area for centuries.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
(Our featured image is by photojenni)
