While the majority of Scots will be busy planning out their Hogmanay celebrations, the inhabitants of one Scottish island won't be thinking about the holiday for another two weeks.
Foula is an island located 20 miles west of the Shetland Mainland, and one of the UK's most remote permanently inhabited islands. It has a population of just 30, with no shops or pubs.
The people who live on Foula follow the Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar, which the rest of the UK adopted in 1752. As a result, it is now 12 days behind mainland Scotland.
This means that the island's inhabitants celebrate Christmas on January 6 and New Year's Day on January 13. Being so cut off from the rest of the UK, residents preserve many Norse traditions and were the last known speakers of the Norn language.
Read More
Related Articles
Read More
Related Articles
On Christmas Day, the population all gather in a single house to give presents. They also play music and sing to celebrate the holiday.
Crofter Stuart Taylor previously told The Mirror: "Islanders have celebrated these days before the Greorgian Calendar. It is not just part of our tradition - but the world's.
"It is everybody else who changed - not us. We are not unique - other parts of the world, such as areas of Russia, still celebrate the old calendar.
"On the 6th, families open their presents in their own homes and then in the evening we all tend to end up in one house. It is the same at New Year on the 13th - we will visit each others' houses and end up at one."
The island is three and a half miles long by two and a half miles wide. At one point, Foula - which lies 15 miles west of mainland Shetland and 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, on the same latitude as southern Greenland - sustained 287 people.
Foula - meaning "bird island" in old Norse - was the location for the film The Edge of the World. The RMS Oceanic was wrecked on the nearby Shaalds of Foula.
The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582.
Don't miss the top culture and heritage stories from around Scotland. Sign up to our twice weekly Scotland Now newsletter here.
This week's top Scotland Now stories
READ MORE:
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCrnZOkv6V6wqhlrqNfqLCwwMuapZ1lnqTEcL7EpqatnV2osLDA06KqoWWZqLmiusNmmp6klZe%2FosDErGScoKKewLW5wKxka3BoaX5zgZQ%3D