Hogmanay

The new year starts with an extra day off work (for most).

Madness. Madness, they call it, madness.They’re right. Princes Street at New Year is beyond madness, it is insanity. Somehow, the street party organisers have managed to sell the traditional Scottish Hogmanay celebration to the world and re-packaged it as the ideal time to struggle through sub-zero temperatures and dense throngs of merry and, invariably, totally hammered revellers across the space of one mile of city centre.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay Festival programme has previously offered an international cultural extravaganza of street theatre and music in the

Temperatures plummeted, as forecast, but early reports suggest that Edinburgh's Hogmanay Street Party was a big success.

The first hours of 2010 look likely to be chilly ones with temperatures in Edinburgh dropping several degrees below zero.

The council has been prepping the public for road closures during Edinburgh's five-day Hogmanay Festival.

 Roads will be closed in advance (see details below) and the council warns: "Vehicles should not be parked within restrictions. All offending vehicles will be removed and may be subject to a parking fine and impound charges."

Free buses will be laid on again this year for revellers attending Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations.

Between 23:45 and 04:30 over 150 buses will take approximately 25,000 passengers home, clocking up a total mileage of 8,000 miles and saving party-goers £100,000.

A new late night service from Glasgow Central to Edinburgh will be launched on 18 December.

The Friday "night" service will leave Glasgow Central at six minutes after midnight - which is some 36 minutes later than the last train to Edinburgh Waverley from Glasgow Queen Street.

As Scotland marks the 450th anniversary of its religious revolution in 1560, experience reformation day at John Knox House with live and audio drama. John Knox is played by John Sheddon.

The Street Party is perhaps the best-known event in Edinburgh's Hogmanay Festival calendar. The New Year street party takes place the length of Princes Street, with live bands, dancing in the street, and street theatre troupes mingling with crowds.

This is the first day of the New Year Sprint in Musselburgh. The New Year Sprint is an open 110m race that has taken place around New Year's Day annually since 1870. Professional and amateur sprinters compete in this the 141st meeting, for a £4000 first prize.

A chance to see performance artists Carabosse transform the Royal Mile and the squares around St Giles Cathedral with fire and light. The installations remaining illuminated until around 8pm.

The massive 7.2m tall Big Man who attracted huge crowds as he walked throughout Scotland this autumn, is reawakened as part of the

St. Giles Cathedral marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish Reformation with an inspirational hour in the tranquil and atmospheric High Kirk with the Choir of St Giles.

The Queen's residence in Scotland plays host to a free, unticketed concert by young, contemporary musicians working in the crossover between folk and jazz, celtic and world music.

The New Year's Conversation returns this year as Edinburgh's Hogmanay marks the 450th anniversary year, in 2010, of the birth of the Reformation in Scotland with a varied programme of events.

At midnight on 31st December the clocks strike twelve and fireworks explode out of Edinburgh Castle to mark the start of a brand new year. Thousands gather at the foot of the castle, many at the Edinburgh's Hogmanay Street Party on Princes Street, for this annual display which can be seen from vantage points across the city.

St Giles’ Cathedral Choir with the St Giles’ Camerata are joined by an array of young soloists for a programme of music that marks the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death with his celebratory Coronation Anthems, including Zadok the Priest.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay is a four-day winter festival that takes place at the end of each year. In 2009-2010, the Hogmanay festival has an additional day.

The Night Afore (30 Dec, the night before Hogmanay) brings a display of light and fire on the Royal Mile and various special tours in popular visitor attractions. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Light Night follows a model borrowed from Paris and St Petersburgh where familiar city venues are opened and illuminated at night to present specially commissioned events and artists.