Hogmanayʹ, Hogmenaʹ, or Hagmenʹa

Holy month.

New Year’s Eve is called hogmanayʹ-night or hogg-night, and it is still the custom in parts of Scotland for persons to go from door to door on that night asking in rude rhymes for cakes or money. (See Hog.)

In Galloway the chief features are “taking the cream off the water,” wonderful luck being attached to a draught thereof; and “the first foot,” or giving something to drink to the first person who enters the house. A grand bonfire and a procession, in which all persons are masked and in bizarre costume.

King Haco, of Norway, fixed the feast of Yole on Christmas Day, the eve of which used to be called hogg-night, which in the old style is New Year’s Eve.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.