Saint Andrew is the disciple in the New Testament who introduced his brother, the Apostle Peter, to Jesus, the Messiah.

The celebration of Saint Andrew as a national festival among some social strata and locales is thought to originate from the reign of Malcolm III (1058–1093).

[7] The University of St Andrews traditionally gives the day for all the students as a free holiday, but this is not a binding rule.

The Scottish Government's flag-flying regulations state that the flag of Scotland (the Saltire or Saint Andrew's Cross) shall fly on all its buildings with a flagpole.

[15] There are a few pre-Christian Romanian traditions connected to Saint Andrew's Day, some of them having their origin in the Roman celebrations of the god Saturn, most famously the Saturnalia.

The document has defined the autonomy of Serbia as a part of the Ottoman Empire, and the additional berat confirmed Prince Miloš as the hereditary ruler of the Serbian Principality.

In parts of Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, and Romania, a superstitious belief exists that the night before Saint Andrew's Day is especially suitable for magic that reveals a young woman's future husband or that binds a future husband to her.

[20] The day was believed to be the start of the most popular time for vampire activity, which would last until Saint George's Eve (22 April).

[22] The main ceremony involved pouring hot wax from a candle through the hole in a key into cold water.

Saint Andrew is invoked to ward off wolves, who are thought to be able to eat any animal they want on this night and to speak to humans.

[24] In Póvoa de Varzim, an ancient fishing town in northern Portugal, Cape Santo André (Portuguese for Saint Andrew) is a place that shows evidence of Romanisation and probable earlier importance, with hints of Stone Age paintings.

[25] Near the cape there are small depressions in a rock, a mystery stone, that the people believe are the footprints of Saint Andrew.

It was common to see groups of fishermen, holding lights in their hands, making a pilgrimage to the cape's chapel along the beach on Saint Andrew's Eve.