Showing posts with label New Year's Eve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Year's Eve. Show all posts

December 31 - New Year's Eve

Posted on December 31, 2020

This is an updated re-publishing of my 12/31/2009 post:

New Year's Eve!
Omisoka!
Hogmanay!
Festival Day!

Whatever you call it, this is the last day of the year, according to the widely-used Gregorian calendar. For some, it is a day to clean and get ready for the New Year, and for others, it is a day of feasting and festivities. In 2020, celebrations will almost surely have to change because of the global pandemic, but let's check out the usual 

Montserrat is a Caribbean island, and today is one of the most important days of the Festival season (which is like the Carnival or Mardi Gras celebrations that occur in February or March in other nations). Festival Day (December 31) is the day of the Festival Troupe competition. For several weeks, there have been masquerades and music and competitions to select the Festival Queen and King. On January 1 there is a parade of all the troupes in the competition.




In Scotland, Hogmanay is characterized by “first-footing,” which means visiting people with gifts of food and drink immediately after midnight. The gifts are supposed to be symbolic of luck for the coming year.


A lot of Hogmanay customs involve lights and fire. Fireball swinging is described on Wikipedia:

WARNING: Don't try this at home!
"This involves local people making up 'balls' of chicken wire filled with old newspaper, dried sticks, old cotton rags, and other dry flammable material up to a diameter of 61 cm. Each ball has 2 m of wire, chain or nonflammable rope attached. As the Old Town House bell sounds to mark the new year, the swingers set off up the High Street... swinging their burning ball around their head as they go for as many times as they and their fireball last. At the end of the ceremony any fireballs that are still burning are cast into the harbour."





Wikipedia reports that the 2007/2008 Hogmanay event was attended by 12,000 people, and that the event is now streamed live over the Internet. Presumably that includes the musical acts before the fireball swinging, and the fireworks after!

In Japan, Omisoka is marked by the year's biggest housecleaning followed by the year's biggest dinner. At midnight, many families visit a Shinto shrine, where large cast bells are struck 108 times (to represent the 108 earthly desires that cause human suffering).




In the U.S., New Year's Eve often involves parties and fireworks and shows on New Year's Eve. Some of the most popular spots to enjoy these things remain Times Square in Manhattan, NYC, Las Vegas, and Disneyland.





Kids' New Year

Sparkling apple cider, noisemakers, streamers, confetti, and maybe even a midnight balloon drop are great fun for kids who aren't normally allowed to stay up until midnight!


Here are some ideas for making a balloon drop.


An idea from a parent is unrolling bubble wrap on a hardwood floor and jumping onto it at midnight.


Some parents celebrate the New Year at someone else's midnight. For example, with a countdown-to-midnight and ball-drop televised from New York City airing at 10 p.m. Mountain Time and 9 p.m. Pacific Time, kids can experience the excitement of the New Year but still get a full night's sleep.

New Year's Fortunes, Predictions, and Resolutions

Another warning: Make sure everybody "gets" that fortunes and predictions are just for fun, no magic at all...

Write fun fortunes and tuck them between layers of a cake, with curling ribbon sticking out all around the cake so family members or friends can pull out a random fortune. Or play magnet-fish with the paper-clipped fortunes being the fish. Fortune cookies or simply drawing fortunes out of a bowl are some other possibilities.


It can be fun to make predictions for the coming year. Consider tucking away the predictions until New Year's Eve next year—then you can check and see how many of your predictions came true.

Finally, write some New Year's resolutions. Try to be realistic and specific, and it will be much easier to fulfill your resolutions!



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January 13 – Malanka in Ukraine

Posted on January 13, 2018

Is this a Christian saint's feast day, or folk holiday based on a pagan folk tale?

Yes!

 In other words, it's kinda-sorta both.

Malanka is a sort of New Year's Eve holiday that also looks forward to the start of spring. 

 The part that refers to a Christian saint is the timing: January 13 is the feast day of Melania the Younger. The timing also has to do with Eastern European cultures' use of the Julian calendar, instead of the Gregorian calendar, for religious observances and holidays. The Old New Year is January 14, so tonight is New Year's Eve on the Julian calendar.

 The part that refers to a pagan story is the story of the Earth Mother's daughter, Mylanka, who is abducted by her evil uncle and taken to his realm, which is the underworld. While she is trapped there, the Earth is left without spring, but once she is released, plants spring forth with new, green growth.


Of course, whatever the complex beginnings of the holiday, most Ukrainians celebrate with their beloved family and community traditions that may not connect all that much with either Melania the Younger or Mylanka. Here are a few traditions:

Carolers go from house to house, where they either play pranks, act out a small play, or express well wishes to neighbors and friends.

The eldest man tosses wheat grains around the entrance to each house while saying a verse. This represents wishes for health and happiness in the coming year.

People gather in banquet halls for dinner, raffles, and dancing. 







 People wear traditional Ukrainian clothing and hold big, decorative stars. These stars are even more common during Christmas - but the New Year's activities tend to be the end of the Christmas season.


To check out some of fun Ukrainian dancing (Kolomyjka), watch this and this video.

 I noticed that some Ukrainian communities in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere celebrate Malanka (also spelled Melanka), but they aren't particular about celebrating on this particular date:






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December 31 - Ōmisoka in Japan

Posted on December 31, 2017



Tonight is New Year's Eve - a holiday celebrated all over, with a variety of names and customs.

It's basically what Ōmisoka is all about in Japan. Some of the customs include house cleaning, repaying debts, and bathing - so that the new year can start fresh, clean, and debt-free. Of course there are parties; nowadays, rather than singing during Ōmisoka gatherings, people often gather to view a four-hour year-end singing battle on TV!


Also, of course, there is food. People often eat bowls of long noodles (toshikoshi soba or toshikoshi udon). The crossing of one noodle over many others represents the crossing from one year to the next. Also, there is a sweet beverage that is passed out to crowds surrounding Shinto shrines, and there are traditional meals prepared on the evening of Ōmisoka and eaten the next few days, in the new year. 


At Buddhist temples, large bells are struck 108 times. I have seen photos of things that are traditional around the world, like confetti fluttering down and fireworks soaring up, as well.




Happy New Year!



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