PRESS RELEASE: Man? Woman? Polisman? Or Hogman? Who will you kiss this Hogmanay?

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11th December 2001

Man? Woman? Polisman? Or Hogman? Who will you kiss this Hogmanay?

The clock "s counting down to the year 2002 and at Hogmanay.net revellers are revving up for the New Year's celebrations.

Hogmanay.net, the home of Hogmanay, has information about Hogmanay celebrations throughout Scotland, from the torchlight procession which opens the three day Edinburgh Hogmanay festivities on 29th December 2001, through to the traditional Shetland Up Helly Aa on 30th January 2002. Curiously, both events involve the burning of a viking longship.

The site, run by Hogman (half hog, half man) and friends from around Scotland, since September 1998, celebrates this ancient annual festival with photos, multimedia, special features and video clips.

Although Hogmanay has more recently become synomyous with the 100,000 strong street parties in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the ancient festival of Hogmanay dates back to pagan times when folk burned fires in the depth of winter to ward off evil spirits. Hogmanay rituals like the Burning of the Clavie, the Perth Flambeaux, the fireball swingers of Stonehaven, the Up Helly Aa and even the more recent Biggar bonfire have not changed for many years.

On Hogmanay.net you can view webcams as they follow the the Winter Solstice event in the neolithic chambered cairn of Maeshowe in Orkney. Watch crazed revellers throwing themselves into the icey Forth river outside Edinburgh in the Loony Dook  video clip and get into the spirit of the festival with the popular six minute Millennium Hogmanay video mix .

In the true spirit of international colloboration, Hogmanay.net found the latter video 's soundtrack, by Russian techno duo Alexander Polyakov and Sergey Pimenov of PPK, through internet music portal MP3.com. In what has been a spectacular internet success story, PPK went on, just week 's later, to knock Madonna off number one spot on the MP3 charts and only last week they shot to number 3 in the UK singles charts.

There 's plenty too on Hogmanay.net for those revellers whose connection speeds wont allow them to view video. As well as details of events around Scotland, with maps and live streaming weather reports for individual cities, there are essential tips for minimising the suffering for the morning after, with our Hangover Cures, and for those unfortunate or responsible enough to be behind the wheel we have The Designated Driver 's page.

Hogmanay.net is also the only place in the world where party animals can find the warm, classic Hoghat featuring on its front the one and only Hogman.

Hogmanay.net carries the full lyrics, with meanings of those trickier Scots words, on our Auld Lang Syne page  so no excuse for singing la! la! la!  at midnight - and our Frequently Asked Questions helps explain the history and background of Scotland 's Hogmanays in brief.

Of course, most revellers just want to get to know everyone else, and our bulletin boards are the most active in Scotland at this time of year. If you 've left your planning to the last minute then this may the place to get a ticket.

Put it all together and you can see why Hogmanay.net has earned the reputation for being the home of Hogmanay !


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CONTACT INFORMATION

If you would like to arrange an interview please contact:

John Ritchie at 01875 822694 or  John@hogmanay.net

In North America you can contact robert@hogmanay.net

Hogmanay.net the Home of Hogmanay

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