The greetings of "Happy New Year" will be said and heard for the first couple of weeks as we enter into the new year. The celebration of New Year is deep rooted in the cultural traditions of mankind.
Not all cultures celebrate New Year at the same time or the same manner. Different cultures throughout the world uses different calendar. Some calendar systems are based on the rotation of the moon, others are based on the alignment of the sun, while some are based on the combination of the sun and the moon. Though celebrated at different times and manner, there are special beliefs about New Year by all cultures.
The celebration of New Year is the oldest of cultural festivities. The New Year was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago. Around the year 2,000 BC, Babyloninans celebrated the beginning of a new year what is now equivalent to 23rd of March, although they did not have a written calendar then.
The logical choice of a new year is actually late March, as it is the time of the year that is the beginning of spring and the planting of new crops. On the other hand, January 1 has no astronomical or agricultural significance. It is however introduced arbitrary.
The Babylonian new year festival was celebrated for eleven days, with each day having its own particular mode of celebration. The grandeur of the elaborate ancient celebration is no comparison with our modern New Year's Eve celebration.
The Romans continued the observance of the new year on March 25, but the Roman calendar was tempered continually by the numerous line of emperors until the calendar soon become out of synchronisation with the sun. To set the calendar right, the Roman senate in 153 BC declared January 1st as the beginning of the new year. However tempering continued until Julius Caesar in 46 BC established the calendar system that we now know as the Julian Calendar. The Julian Calander again established January the 1st as the new year. In order to synchronise the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.
However, in AD 567 the Council of Tours abolished January first in favor of March as the start of a new year, varying the actual day to coincide with the Vernal Equinox. New Year celebrations lasted for several days. The first day of the new year was moved back to January 1 with the advent of the Gregorian Calendar by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.
The Romans continued celebrating the new year throughout the first century AD, but the early Church condemned the festivities as practice of paganism. As Christianity began to expand, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and the New Year's Day was no different.
The New Year is still observed as the Feast of Jesus Christ's Circumcision by some Christian denominations. The Church remain opposed to celebrating the New Year during the Middle Ages. The 1st January New Year celebration has been celebrated as a holiday by western nations for only about 400 years.
Throughout the world many people hold parties which last until past midnight on New Year's Eve. It is a tradition to greet the New Year when the clock strikes 12.00 midnight and celebrate the first few minutes of the year in the company of family and friends. Many people may dance, sing and drink a toast to the year ahead. Horns are blown at midnight, and people hug and kiss to begin the new year with much love and joy.
The New Year tradition include the making of New Year's resolutions. These are a list of decisions made for the coming year. This tradition dates back to the ancient Babylonians.
The Tournament of Roses Parade started in 1886 where members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers to celebrate the ripening of the orange crop in California. The Rose Bowl football game was first played as part of the Tournament of Roses in 1902, it was later replaced by Roman chariot races the following year. The foolball game returned to the sports for the festival in 1916.
The tradition using an infant to signify the new year began in Greece around 600 BC. The ancient Greeks celebrated the annual rebirth of their god of wine, Dionysus, representing the spirit of fertility. This was done by parading an infant in a basket. The ancient Egyptians also used an infant to symbolise rebirth.
Thought the early church denounced the practice as paganism, the popularily of the infant as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to recondider its position. Finally, the Church allowed its adherents to celebrate the new year with an infant to symbolise the birth of infant Jesus.
The use of the image of infant with New Year banners to symbolise the new year was introduced to early America by the Germans who have used the infant icon since the fourteenth century.
It has been a traditional belief and practice that one could affect the luck they would have for the whole of the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day for the year. It has become common for people to celebrate the first few minutes of the new year in the company of family members and friends. New Year parties often lasts until the morning hours after the the stroke of midnight.
It is a belief that traditional New Year foods bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring bring good luck, as it symbolises "coming full circle" completing the year's cycle. The Dutch for that reason believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good luck. In many areas of the country, the new year was celebrated by consuming black-eyed peas. These are accompanies typically with either hog jowls or ham. Cabbage too is considered as a good luck vegetable that is consumed by many on New Year's Day.
New Year Greetings
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History of Auld Lang Syne
About the traditional song sung as the clock stuck 12 midnight to commemorate the past year and celebrate the new year.
