Hollywood movie star Gerard Butler is coming home for a good old Scottish Hogmanay – and his plans look set to be smoking hot, with the Paisley-born star revealing that he’s going to be taking part in the Comrie Flambeaux, an ancient fire festival, to bring in the New Year.
Gerry, who has starred alongside Jennifer Aniston and Katherine Heigl, is travelling back home to see his mum and dad in Comrie, Perth, and he’s planning to bring in the bells with them at the traditional event.
The fire festival sees locals gather together in the small village to parade the streets holding flaming torches, in a ‘ceremonial cleansing’ of the area, getting it ready for a fresh new year.
Everyone joins in, marching through the village as a pipe band plays traditional Scottish music, before gathering at Melville Square.
Explaining a bit more about the fire festival, Gerard told The Sun: “I love New Year’s Eve. I often end up in my local village in Scotland where my parents now live, and they have this pagan festival.
“The pipe band comes out and then everybody lights huge wooden torches that they have to carry round like pillars, and march round the village to cast out all the old evil spirits.
“Then they go to the river and people make floats and they all go round the village. It’s amazing, it’s one of the coolest things.â€
Film star Gerard added: “It’s bringing in the New Year, it’s your hopes for the future, it’s like saying goodbye to that year, putting it to bed, then spreading out some love and some good wishes.â€
As well as a good Scottish Hogmanay, Gerard has another thing to look forward to this New year – the release of his latest movie, Playing For Keeps, which is out on January 1.
The movie sees the Hoops fan star as a former Celtic player who is attempting to patch up his rocky relationship with his son.
The movie also stars Hollywood A-listers including Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman, Dennis Quaid and Catherine Zeta-Jones.