We are lucky our explosives are celebratory and not deadly ones - Steve Cardownie
The news that the American media channel CNN is to broadcast our Hogmanay celebrations live across the world is yet another indication of the city’s international reputation.
As recorded by Evening News reporter Ian Swanson, CNN’s New Year broadcast will reach over 500 million households worldwide, as the network explores Scottish Hogmanay traditions that have inspired celebrations all over the world.
Showcasing events including the Torchlight Procession and the Ho-Ho-Hogmanay and Night Afore concert events as well as the world-renowned Midnight Moment from Edinburgh Castle, the coverage is set to reinforce Edinburgh’s reputation as the home of Hogmanay and a world-class destination for welcoming in the New Year.
We have certainly come a long way from my younger days when we would huddle around the Tron Kirk to bring in the bells and then try to find out if there was a party that we could wangle an invite to before trudging home the following afternoon. Weary and footsore but nevertheless content that we had seen in another new year.
Plans for this year’s Hogmanay remain fluid but will no doubt include my Ukranian relatives who fled to these shores in the spring of 2022 after Vladimir Putin launched his bloody invasion of their homeland.
We will undoubtedly raise a glass to those left behind in Kyiv who are facing nightly missile and drone attacks from Russian armed forces as the war shows no positive signs of coming to a close anytime soon.
Russia’s demands that Ukraine must cede territory were reinforced by Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov in an interview with the Russian news agency RIA Novosti (when referring to the Russian occupied regions that Moscow claims it has annexed).
“ Kyiv and its Western backers must recognise the new territorial realities that have emerged following the incorporation of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, and the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions into the Russian Federation.”
A Ukranian think tank, published a survey this week that showed that recognizing occupied Russian territories “as part of the Russian Federation” remained deeply unpopular in Ukraine with 76 per cent of Ukranians saying that they considered it “unacceptable.”
This demand is also being met with resistance from the Ukranian authorities and until this issue is resolved the war is destined to enter it’s fifth year.
So, as the city prepares to welcome visitors from all over the world who have come here to celebrate the “out with the old and in with the new” year we should spare a thought for those who are caught up in many of the armed conflicts that are currently raging throughout the world.
Not for them the luxury of a party or a dram to toast the new year. It is more likely that instead of the sound of celebratory music they will hear gunfire or the whine of missiles above.
Let’s hope that 2026 will herald in a new era of peace and friendship, it might be a forlorn hope but I, for one, will remain optimistic.