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Cheers! To a Great Year !
The Romans too celebrated the New
Year sometime around the last week
Finally, 1st of January was officially declared to be the first day of the New Year by the Roman senate. The day is bang in the middle of the winter, and doesn't really have any astrological or agricultural significance. It was just a date picked arbitrarily. However, this didn't stop the Roman emperors from changing around the calendar again and again. They didn't tamper with the New Year date though. Finally, Julius Caesar set down the calendar as we know it. According to tradition, the first day of the year signifies what the rest of the year is going to be like. Thus, if you are working on the first day of the year, you are likely to be working and slaving for the rest of the year. Thus it is customary to celebrate this day in the company of friends and family. And then of course, people unfailingly make resolutions in the New Year, which they often fail to keep. Some of the most common resolutions are to quit smoking, drinking, to stick to a diet or exercise plan, to lose weight, to complete an unfinished task etc. The Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Years day brings luck. This is because it is ring shaped, and any food in the shape of a ring shows that you have come full circle. In some villages in Scotland, barrels of tar are set afire, and rolled down the streets to burn out the old year and bring in the new one. In addition, the Scottish people believe that if the first person to visit your house on the New Year is a tall, dark-haired man, the year will prove to be a fortunate one. In the United States, New Years Day
processions fill up the streets. Decorated floats, dancers, musicians,
singers… are all part of the procession. Football matches are held everywhere
on this day.
The song Auld Lang Syne is played in most countries around the world, at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. Here are the lyrics: Should auld acquaintance be forgot
For Auld Lang Syne, my dear,
The words Auld Lang Syne simply mean
the 'good old days'.
Learn how to say Happy New Year in these languages: French: Bonne Annee
And finally, as we say in Hindi -
Naya Saal Mubaarak!
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We're
approaching that time of the year again, when its time to ring out the
old, and ring in the new. The New Year is probably the oldest holiday of
all time, and has been celebrated for almost 4000 years. The tradition
of celebrating the New Year is believed to have originated in Babylon.
The New Year celebrations lasted for eleven days, and it was a time of
grand feasting. It was celebrated with the first visible crescent of the
New Moon, after the Vernal Equinox - which is the first day of spring.
(This usually falls around the 21st of March.) Logically, choosing the
first day of spring as the New Year makes a lot of sense, as spring signifies
the beginning of life, the beginning of a new season and the end of the
winter - which is the last season. Plants are being planted, flowers have
just started to blossom, and everything seems to be slowly coming back
to life.
