Top 20 Interesting Facts About New Year-
New Year is the time at which a new calendar year begins and therefore the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner and that's why the 1st day of January is often regarded as a national holiday. In the Gregorian calendar, the foremost widely used calendar system today, New Year occurs on January 1. This was also the opening day of the year within the original Julian calendar and of the Roman calendar. Other cultures observe their traditional or religious New Years Day as stated by their own customs. Below are the top 20 fascinating facts about New Year.
1: The earliest recording of a New Year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and it was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March.
Photo: Marguerite Martyn/ via Wikipedia |
2: The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year because this calendar had only ten months which begins with March.
Photo: Wikimedia |
3: In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as New Year’s Day. In the present-day context, most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their de facto calendar.
Photo: Karl Nimtsch/ via Wikimedia |
4: A New Year’s resolution is considered as a tradition, most commonly within the Western Hemisphere but also found within the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait.
5: There is a music festival every New Year’s eve in the Antarctic called ‘icestock’.
6: In Thailand, they celebrate their traditional New Year’s Day with a state-sponsored multiple-day water fight.
7: Russians celebrate the New Year twice, once on January 1st and then again on January 14th.
8: January is named after Janus, the god with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward. He is the god of beginnings, transitions, gates, doors, passages, and endings.
9: According to statistics from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, vehicles are stolen on New Year's Day more than any other normal holiday.
10: Each New Year’s Eve 1 million people gather in New York City’s Times Square to watch a famous ball drop. Another 1 billion people from around the world will watch the famed ball drop on TV.
11: Every year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in all of Europe, attended by more than a million people.
12: In Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, New Year’s fireworks are set off from Jumeirah Beach and the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. The New Year firework exhibition at Burj Khalifa is among the world’s most expensive.
13: At midnight on New Year's Eve, all Japanian Buddhist temples ring their bells a total of 108 times to symbolize the 108 human sins in Buddhist belief, and to get rid of the 108 worldly desires regarding sense and feeling in every Japanese citizen.
14: Until 2006, the Space Shuttle never flew on New Year’s day or eve because its computers couldn’t handle a year rollover.
15: The celebration in London focuses on Big Ben (Westminster Clock Tower) the bell and by association, the clock housed in the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster.
16: The largest celebration in Australia is held in its largest city: Sydney. The “Midnight Fireworks” are regularly watched by approximately 1.5–2 million people at Sydney Harbour.
17: In Korea and some other Asian countries, when you are born, you are considered one year old and everyone’s age increases one year on New Year’s. So if you were born on December 29th, on New Year’s day, you will be considered 2 years old.
18: In Thailand, they celebrate their traditional New Year’s Day with a state-sponsored multiple-day water fight.
19: In some cities of Colombia, Cuba and Puerto Rico, there's a practice of creating a male doll which is stuffed with memories from the past year, all dressed in the clothes of the outgoing year and is named Mr. Old Year. At midnight, this doll is set on fire symbolizing the erasing of the bad memories of the past.
20: On New Year’s Day in Akita, Japan there is a tradition where men dress as mountain demons, get drunk, and terrorize children for being lazy or disobeying their parents.
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INTERESTING FACTS