Its importance as the main city for the nation allowed the traditions to flourish there more than anywhere else.
The popularity of the New Year’s Eve festivities grew to a point in the 1800s where Edinburgh’s streets were packed after midnight, a testament to the already established zest for the occasion.
Anna Marshall, author of The Little Book of Christmas and Hogmanay, links it to a reaction against the temperance movement in the early 1800s. This saw the industrial middle-classes shun alcohol, in the belief that heavy drinking was affecting the productivity of industry.
“There has been a long history of Hogmanay celebrations at The Tron in Edinburgh for as long as anyone can remember,” she says.
“The temperance movement gained traction in Scotland in the 1830s, which meant alcohol was essentially voluntarily banned in areas particularly in industrial areas, so Glasgow, Lanarkshire, your coal mining areas as well.
“Although there were temperance movements in Edinburgh too its seems that the strongholds were outwith Edinburgh.
“If people were able to drink more freely in Edinburgh and it was away from areas where people thought they would be seen maybe that contributed to Edinburgh becoming the home of Hogmanay.”
