Oct 29, 2007 12:36 PM New Year Eve Holidays posted by Anirban

The  opening  day  of  the  year  in  the  Gregorian  calendar  used  by  most  nations  is  1st  January.  It  marks  the  beginning  of  the  new  calendar  year.  It's  a  conclusion  of  the  week-long  Christmas  celebrations.

New  Year  is  the  most  primeval  of  all  the  holidays.  The  day  was  first  pragmatic  in  Babylon  in  the  2nd  millennia  BC.  The  Babylonian  year  commenced  with  the  first  detection  of  the  hemispherical  moon  -  the  new  moon  -  following  the  vernal  equinox.  Ever  since  the  initiation  of  the  Christian  epoch,  the  Romans  persistently  observed  New  Year  in  late  March.  However,  after  the  monarchy  interfered  in  the  creation  of  the  calendar,  which  was  planned  so  as  to  synchronize  with  the  sun.  It  was  then  the  Roman  Capitol  declared  the  date  as  January  1.

The  commemoration  of  the  New  Year  is  the  oldest  of  all  holidays.  January  1  has  been  eminent  as  a  holiday  by  Western  nations  for  only  about  the  past  4  centuries.  "Happy  New  Year!"  is  the  greet  said  and  heard  for  the  first  couple  of  weeks  as  a  new  year  gets  in.  It  is  a  time  to  mirror  on  the  past  and  envisage  a  future,  where  people  would  live  together  in  accord.

The  entire  series  of  celebration  of  the  New  Year's  Day  basically  branches  from  the  various  ways  ancient  societies  used  to  welcome  the  new  crop  seasons.  The  spirit  of  celebration  is  for  renaissance,  while  dumping  the  old  and  worn  out.  The  traditions  though  customized  through  the  centuries,  have  still  their  characteristic  strains  in  the  ways  each  upcoming  year  is  welcomed.

The  idea  of  making  raucous  noise  is  to  intimidate  away  the  evil  spirits.  Hence  at  the  stroke  of  midnight  there  is  a  clamor  of  sirens,  car  horns,  boat  whistles,  party  horns,  church  bells.  The  New  Year  resolutions  stand  for  other  efforts  to  make  the  year  afresh.  In  fact,  it's  to  say  that  in  the  New  Year  they  are  "turning  over  a  new  leaf".

The  New  Year  traditions  often  comprise  traditions  of  pious  celebrations,  costume  parties,  parades  and  with  customs  said  to  bring  good  luck  and  affluence  in  the  new  year.  In  South  America  it  is  celebrated  by  making  a  fake  person  or  dummy  or  a  scare-crow.  He  stands  for  something  that  happened  throughout  the  last  year.  At  midnight  each  family  lights  the  dummy  on  fire.  People  in  Japan  splurge  weeks  preparing  for  their  New  Year  celebrations.  They  acquire  special  food  and  make  decorations  for  their  front  doors  out  of  pine  branches,  bamboo,  and  ropes  that  are  said  to  bring  health  and  long  life.

In  the  United  States,  the  famous  parade  is  the  Tournament  of  Roses  where  the  floats  are  all  garlanded  with  flowers.  It's  celebrated  to  mark  the  ripening  of  the  orange  crop  in  California.  New  years  is  celebrated  in  many  countries  with  a  parade  including  the  Bahamas  (The  Junkanoo  Parade),  Nepal,  Greece,  Syria  and  Lebanon,  Thailand.

New  Year's  Eve  is  December  31,  the  concluding  day  of  the  Gregorian  year,  and  the  day  prior  to  New  Year's  Day.  New  Year's  Eve  is  a  separate  ceremony  from  that  of  New  Year's  Day.  The  celebration  involves  merriment  until  the  moment  of  the  changeover  of  the  year  at  midnight.  Drinking  champagne  is  also  a  foremost  part  of  the  partying.

The  most  exceptional  feature  of  New  Year's  Eve  merrymaking  is  the  New  Year's  Eve  party.  In  many  countries  a  theme  party  is  held  on  this  day,  there  are  fancy  dress  celebrations  too.  The  party  continues  till  a  new  dawn  breaks  over  the  horizon.  The  soft  evolution  of  the  old  year  into  the  New  Year  is  reckoned  as  a  blessing.  Some  of  the  nuggets  include  recipes,  themes,  decorations,  party  games,  favors  and  many  more  to  make  them  last  till  the  teensy  weensy  hours  of  dawn  and  the  following  morning.