The celebration of the New Year is one of the oldest of all holidays. Come January 1 you can see the night sky light up with some amazing fireworks. On this day millions of people all over the world huddle up together to celebrate the spirit of the New Year that has just touched upon our lives. There is great camaraderie and friendship with one another. Regardless of whether you know the person next to you or not you hug them and wish them a prosperous year ahead. While many nations have their calendars that are still in use it's the Gregorian calendar that has been more or less adopted by nations all over the World. Still each nation has developed its own styles of celebrating the spirit of New Year over the years. This has brought the World closer and made New Years so much more fun. The New Years according to sources were first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. Only for the past four hundred years have many of the countries been celebrating New Year. And over the years more and more nations adopted the Gregorian calendars and the influence of celebrating New Year spread slowly to other nations as well developing in the process developing their own styles.
All around the world people celebrate the coming of a new year that signifies the spirit and traditions of ones own country and the social beliefs of the particular place.Some time the celebrations may not be held in the same day as they often include traditions of religious celebrations, costume parties, parades and with customs said to bring good luck and fortune in the new year.
Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the New Year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. Also US has is popular for its parades in many of the cities. Were thousands of people spill out on to the streets of their cities and witness a parade where people are dressed in colourful costumes and dance to beat of music.
In Japan for instance people buy special food and make decorations for their front doors out of pine branches, bamboo, and ropes that are believed to bring health and long life. Fan ropes are also hung over the doors and roofs with seaweed or ferns to bring them happiness and good luck.
In China the New Year is called and is celebrated for a massive fifteen days. It's a fascinating custom and the Chinese people enjoy feasting during the celebrations. People there have the custom of exchanging red envelopes with coins in it. It is believed that it brings fortune and good luck to the family. Also the members of the family make it a point to pay homage to all their ancestors.
Even in a country that is modern like Germany they have some pretty interesting traditions. In many parts of the country they follow traditions that have been followed for many years. The people drop molten lead into cold water and predict the future from the shapes created in the water. Like – heart shape means love, a ship denotes journey, ring shape means wedding and pig means plenty of food in the coming year.
Another famous and common tradition that is observed across many countries is making resolutions. Though this tends to be more of personal commitment rather than a social or family affair. People often make resolutions at the birth of a New Year and try to make a serious commitment out of it. Different people have varying degrees of success but they do resolve to make the resolutions nevertheless. It might be something simple like quit smoking or a resolve to work harder in the office to secure a better grade. It is usually done in view of making ones own life better in the upcoming New Year.
During the run up to every New Year people do tend to indulge in a lot of shopping. With most shops setting up their stores for sale at hefty discounts people throng to the stores to get gifts for near and dear ones. No wonder New Years always add to the expectations.