It goes without saying that New Year is one of the biggest celebrations worldwide and has held this distinction since ancient times. Until the world started getting smaller and we all began rooting for 31st December, different cultures in different parts of the world had their own ideas about time division, based on their own separate calendars - solar, lunar, or a combination of both - and so celebrated the New Year at different times. But many of the beliefs regarding the New Year were amazing similar. A majority of cultures, for example, believed - and still do believe - that what you do either on New Year's Eve or on the First Day of the New Year sets the tone for the way things will turn out for the rest of the year. This was one reason why people got together with their loved ones and tried to all have good times - surely they have the same sort of enjoyment then all year round. Other common beliefs included believing that the first visitor on New Year's morning would bring either good luck or bad luck to the household (convenient, I think, either way things go, you've someone to blame), and that eating special foods, especially those shaped like a ring to symbolize coming a full circle, would bring good luck (Foods like doughnuts, and also legumes, cabbage, ham, rice, etc.). Music, dances, and fire-crackers during the celebrations are other things common to all cultures.
New Year Celebrations the world over took place in the following ways :
Babylon, as Iraq was known in ancient times, has perhaps the earliest known custom of celebrating the New Year - 4000 years ago. The New Year came to Babylon in March - more logical than January, since Spring is the time for renewal in Nature and a time for planting for the farmers; the Babylonians, by the way, were also the first people to start making New Year's Resolutions and, no, losing weight wasn't their biggest concern, returning borrowed farm equipment was. For the duration of the Spring Festival, the King stepped down from his throne and left his subjects to their own devises for eleven days. As expected, as with children left alone after a strict supervision, the Festival soon became one big exploding mayhem of unfettered joy. Then, as all authority eventually does, the King returned - he had finished contemplating on his life in the brief hiatus and he hoped his citizens had managed a modicum of it too - great, people, now get your noses back to the grind-stones - we don't do any more contemplation until next year!
New Year came to the Egyptians in September. This coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, a phenomenon that fertilized the Land of Egypt and was responsible for its wealth and prosperity. So it made sense to commemorate this important event as the start of all future prospects. The Egyptians turned it into a great festive occasion, in which they prayed to their God Amon and cheered a barge floating along the flooded river, carrying statues of him, his wife and son. There was a lot of singing, dancing, and feasting, and the party went on for a month. Then, after the Nile waters had subsided, the Gods were returned to their temple.
New Year Celebrations the world over took place in the following ways :
Babylon, as Iraq was known in ancient times, has perhaps the earliest known custom of celebrating the New Year - 4000 years ago. The New Year came to Babylon in March - more logical than January, since Spring is the time for renewal in Nature and a time for planting for the farmers; the Babylonians, by the way, were also the first people to start making New Year's Resolutions and, no, losing weight wasn't their biggest concern, returning borrowed farm equipment was. For the duration of the Spring Festival, the King stepped down from his throne and left his subjects to their own devises for eleven days. As expected, as with children left alone after a strict supervision, the Festival soon became one big exploding mayhem of unfettered joy. Then, as all authority eventually does, the King returned - he had finished contemplating on his life in the brief hiatus and he hoped his citizens had managed a modicum of it too - great, people, now get your noses back to the grind-stones - we don't do any more contemplation until next year!
New Year came to the Egyptians in September. This coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, a phenomenon that fertilized the Land of Egypt and was responsible for its wealth and prosperity. So it made sense to commemorate this important event as the start of all future prospects. The Egyptians turned it into a great festive occasion, in which they prayed to their God Amon and cheered a barge floating along the flooded river, carrying statues of him, his wife and son. There was a lot of singing, dancing, and feasting, and the party went on for a month. Then, after the Nile waters had subsided, the Gods were returned to their temple.
