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Introduction: |
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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. |
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History:
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| 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. |
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Celebrations:
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| 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".
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Traditions and customs:
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| 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.
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| New Year's Eve: |
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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.
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