New Year’s Eve Hogmanay Ceilidh 2025
By Donald Macdonald
Dancing to Bang on the Ear, Photo Andrea Behan.
A joyful group of tartan-clad revelers of all ages recently gathered in Ottawa’s Glebe district to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the SSO. This time around, the celebration was held at the Blessed Sacrament Hall, which offered a real homey feel to all who joined in.
The party, called “Hogmanay Ceilidh – From the Streets of Edinburgh!” featured the sensational and ever popular fiddler from Antigonish Nova Scotia Anna Ludlow, and her band of accomplished musicians, followed later in the evening by Glengarry’ County’s Celtic rock group, Bang on the Ear.
Balloon Drop, Photo Andrea Behan.
The local Celtic Folk Night group got things going in a traditional style, followed by the Ottawa Highland Dancing Association dancers. Fantastic Cape Breton square sets with Caller Beth MacGillivray got us all up and dancing! Christopher Brown was our friendly emcee who kept things moving and even offered us some of his own poetic flourishes. The balloon drops did not fail to thrill the youngsters at 7 p.m. when it was time for “New Year’s in Scotland.” John Devine, Head of the Scottish Government in Canada, addressed the party and Father Tim Nelligan, Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church welcomed all to the special venue.
Our ‘food truck’ was a great addition, Photo Andrea Behan.
Possibly the most unique sight was a unique food truck that somehow made its way inside the church hall to offer Scottish delicacies to all; including sausage rolls, haggis sliders and veggie burgers. Many also tried the SSO’s own curated single malt scotch whiskies!
The SSO had a very busy time planning this New Year’s Eve event. We pulled it off with the help of our many great volunteers, led by outgoing Hogmaneh Director Ken Bartlett, who also did many media interviews promoting the event. The SSO is so thankful to the Hogmanay team for their tremendous work over their months of planning.
As we look ahead to the future, the SSO has exciting plans in the works for our next New Year’s party. To give us the time we need, we will likely skip a year and be back bigger and better than ever in 2027! Stay tuned for details, and opportunities to be involved in the planning.