As we begin the countdown to tonight's epic fireworks finale to Edinburgh's Hogamanay celebrations, here's a few factoids to share with those around you on Princes Street as you wait for midnight.

Small 'countdown' displays will take place on the hour at 9pm, 10pm, 11pm before the climactic midnight display (at midnight!).

If all the fireworks in the midnight display were fired individually, instead of all at once, the display would last FOUR HOURS instead of just five minutes!

And if the combined height of all the fireworks were laid out end-to-end, the distance covered would reach from Edinburgh to Paris, nearly 700 miles!

Setting up the fireworks at Edinburgh Castle, Princes Street Gardens and Calton Hill takes a crew of 14 technicians from Titanium Fireworks more than five days on site...

The display itself features over 2,000 electrical cues to ignite over 11,000 fireworks in 18 different shades of colour. 

Midnight on Hogmanay marks the only time in the year when the clock on the Balmoral Hotel, above Waverley Station, tells the correct time - ordinarily it runs a couple of minutes fast as a service to ensure passengers heading for trains don't miss them.

Be sure to wrap up warm if you're out in town for the celebrations tonight, and enjoy the unique celebration of Edinburgh's Hogmanay, and have a very happy start to the new year!

Despite Edinburgh having several year-round Christmas shops, you could be forgiven for thinking that Scotland wasn't all that bothered about Christmas - after all, Hogmanay (the Scots celebration of the turning of the new year) is the biggest celebration in the Scottish calendar, with hundreds of thousands of people journeying to Scotland to celebrate in cities and towns across the country.

There are historical reasons for this shift of festive focus. Christmas was banned in Britain under the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the seventeenth-century, believing the celebration was a decadent indulge unbefitting of a puritan people. From 1643 Christmas celebrations were outlawed due to their popular excesses - drinking, dancing, over-eating, gift giving, singing - which were direct in contradiction of the ideals of the Puritan strand of Protestant faith.

In Scotland, celebrations were subtly adjusted to make the focus of festivities fall the following week, when the calendar marked a change of year. Thus the new year celebration - unrelated to the Christian calendar, and so outwith the purview of the puritan church - became the winter festival instead!

Despite the restoration of the monarchy, with an associated restoration of Christmas celebrations in 1660, Scots continued to mark the new year more fervently than the Christmas holidays. In fact, Christmas day was never a formal public holiday in Scotland until 1958, as many of the present older generation of Scots will attest. Working on Christmas Day was a common enough experience for centuries - and partly influenced Dickens' classic Christmas character, Ebenezer Scrooge - but Hogmanay was a festival that would be marked and celebrated fervently. 

A record from 1863 notes that the traditional rite of celebration at the new year was marked in the following way:

"On the approach of twelve o’clock, a hot pint was prepared – that is, a kettle or flagon full of warm, spiced and sweetened ale, with an infusion of spirits. When the clock had struck the knell of the departing year, each member of the family drank of this mixture with a general handshaking, and perhaps a dance round the table, with the addition of a song."

How civilised! 

Traditionally, the celebration in Edinburgh took place outside the Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile, where crowds would gather to hear the bells chime at midnight on Hogmanay, and where they would formally welcome in the new year. Today the new year is marked rather less sedately, especially in Edinburgh where a three-day festival period of street performances, markets and live music culminates in the annual street party on Princes Street, and a fireworks display over the city centre.

Some traditional rites are still marked, with the practice of 'first footing', whereby the first person to enter a house was deemed a harbinger of luck and fortune, and would carry with them a gift of silver (for good financial fortune) or a lump of coal, a bottle of whisky or some such token. 

So whether you are celebrating Christmas or Hogmanay - or both! - in Scotland this winter, wrap up warm, and be sure to eat, drink and merry in the company of some of the most welcoming people in the world.

Explore the city year-round with my private walking tours!

A week today will be Christmas Eve - if you haven't already been enjoying the winter wonderland of attractions from Edinburgh's Christmas, there's still time to catch a ride on the big wheel or on the star-flyer (if your stomach allows it).

And in case you thought all the flashing lights and market stalls were a recent invention, an article from the Scotsman on 18th December 1923 celebrated that year's Waverley Market Carnival, proving that Edinburgh is no stranger to Christmas cheer:

"The cold, drab, prosaic aspect of the Market has vanished for the time being, as if by the waving of a fairy’s wand," the article says, "and the interior of the building presents an appearance of animation, brightness, and gaiety in keeping with the joyous spirit of the season."

Then, as now, there were stalls and sideshow attractions, including performing animals, which Edinburgh Council would scarcely countenance licensing today: "There are acts by dogs, which display wonderful cleverness; there are astonishing balancing feats by sea lions; there is a boxing pony...." 

The Waverley Market was not far from  the site of today's 'carnival', above Waverley Station. It was the city's principle fruit and vegetable market up until 1973, and the site also featured an exhibition space where a variety of shows were staged throughout the year, including dog shows, car shows, and a variety of circus and carnival attractions, such as the Christmas carnival. The market site was demolished and redeveloped as the modern shopping centre, today branded as Princes Mall, but previously retaining the Waverley name. 

"When one enters this atmosphere of dazzling delights, laughter, and music," the Scotsman reviewer wrote, in 1923, "even the most staid person feels constrained to enter into the fun of the fair." The same can easily said of the modern incarnation of this seasonal extravaganza, with two skating rinks - including a circular rink around the Melville Monument in St Andrew's Square - the big wheel, star flyer, children's Christmas tree maze and other family friendly rides, hot food and drink stalls, and with the Spiegeltent (usually seen during the Fringe in the summer months) providing hours of festive entertainment indoors too. 

Edinburgh's Christmas runs until 4th January, and if you're visiting Edinburgh over the festive period, why not book an Up-Close and Personal Tour to get to know the city better?

Inspired by an entry in Michael TRB Turnbull's The Edinburgh Book of Days. 

Crossing the World's End junction, you would previously be leaving Edinburgh and entering Canongate, a separate burgh owned by the abbey (and its canons) at Holyrood. 

The name Canongate has nothing to do with weapons; it derives from the route taken by the canons of St Giles' as they would walk from their lodgings at Holyrood Abbey - 'the canon's gait' is also reflected in the name of a pub along this stretch of the Royal Mile. 

Down here you will find two free museums, the People's Story and the Museum of Edinburgh, both providing a fascinating insight into life in the old city. The People's Story is housed in the distinctive building of the old Canongate tollbooth, built in the sixteenth century. Adjacent to this building, on the north side of the street, is the Canongate Kirk, bearing the royal insignia of Holyrood as it is the Queen's official house of worship when in residence at Holyrood Place. 

In the graveyard of Canongate Kirk you can find the resting places of many famous or influential figures, including Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations and a father of modern economics; Robert Fergusson, a poet who inspired Robert Burns, who is also featured in a statue on the Canongate, immediately outside of the the Canongate Kirk; and Agnes Maclehose, a Glaswegian woman who sustained a correspondence with Robert Burns under the name 'Clarinda', and to whom the poet wrote the poem Ae Fond Kiss. A small cafe a little further down the Canongate, Clarinda's Tearoom, is named for Maclehose.

There any plenty of small and independent shops and cafes to explore on the Canongate, including a year-round Christmas shop! 

At the very bottom of the road you'll pass the accumulation of buildings of the Scottish Parliament, designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles, incorporating several original buildings including Queensberry House, former home to the marquises of Queensberry and reputedly haunted by the ghost of a kitchen boy, roasted alive and canibalised on the eve of the signing of the Act of Union in 1707.

Across the roundabout here you can also visit the last (and shortest) street of the Royal Mile, Abbey Strand, which leads up to the ornate gates of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The building on the south side of the street houses the Queen's Gallery, exhibiting artworks from the royal collection.

Holyroodhouse marks the bottom end of the Royal Mile, just over a mile in distance from Edinburgh Castle. 

To explore the Royal Mile in more detail, book my Royal Mile walking tour, or plan a fully customised Edinburgh tour package!