First Footing with Black Bun in Scotland 2025

Black Bun is the traditional festive Scottish fruit cake with raisins, currants, and almonds flavoured with citrus peel, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and black pepper. The savoury cake used to be traditional festive food consumed on the Christian feast of Twelfth Night, that was actually the twelfth day after Christmas known as Epiphany. In the course of history through the Scottish Reformation, ​the Scots stopped celebrating Christmas and consequently the Twelfth Night also disappeared from the festive calendar. The Black Bun survived nevertheless and since then it has been consumed during the Hogmanay or Scottish New Year. Today it is a part of the "First Footing" custom, when Scots visit their neighbours shortly after midnight on the 1st of January, they come with good intentions, good wishes, and good food represented by the Black Bun.