Welcome the "New Year 2013"

New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome. 

With most countries using the Gregorian calendar as their main calendar, New Year's Day is the closest thing to being the world's only truly global public holiday, often celebrated with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the New Year starts.

January 1 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 14 on the Gregorian calendar, and it is on that date that followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the New Year. New Year's Day is a postal holiday in the United States.

The New Year signifies that the time has arrived to bid farewell to the by-gone year and to welcome the New Year. Traditionally, the New Year was celebrated on the first of March every year. However, this date was switched to January 1 as it is considered to have a more religious significance. 

 

Many New Year's traditions are similar, but some are different. Here are some interesting customs, past and present, around the world.


Armenian New Year
 
The ancient Armenians had been celebrating the coming of the New Year on the 21st of March. That date is not only the first day of the spring, but also the birthday of the mythical God Vahangn, in whom believed the pagan Armenians about 10 thousand years ago. On this day the Armenians prepared huge feasts to welcome and celebrate the zenith of the nature.

Australian New Year

In Australia they celebrate the New Year on January 1. This day is a public holiday and many people have picnics and camp out on the beach. They have parties that start on December 31 and at midnight they start to make noise with whistles and rattles, car horns and church bells. To ring in the New Year.


Austrian New Year

In Austria 1691 Pope Innocent XII declared January 1 to be New Year's Day. New Year's Eve is called Sylvesterabend which is the Eve of Saint Sylvester. They make a punch made of cinnamon, sugar, and red wine in honor of him. Taverns and inns are decorated with evergreen wreaths. Confetti, streamers, and champagne are also part of New Year's Eve. Evil spirits of the old year are chased away by the firing of mortars called böller. Midnight mass is attended and trumpets are blown from church towers at midnight

Belgian New Year

New Year's Eve is called Sint Sylvester Vooranvond, or Saint Sylvester Eve. People throw parties and at midnight everyone kisses and exchanges good luck greetings. New Year's Day is call Nieuwjaarrsdag. children write letters on decorated paper to their parents and god parents, and read the letter to them.

British New Year

In Britain the custom of first footing is practiced. The first male visitor to the house after midnight is usually supposed to bring good luck. Usually they bring a gift like money, bread, or coal, which is done to ensure the family, will have plenty of these things all the year to come. The first person must not be blond, red-haired or women as these people are supposedly bad luck.

Canadian New Year

New Year traditions and celebrations in Canada vary regionally. New Year's Eve (also called New Year's Eve Day or Veille du Jour de l'An in French) is generally a social holiday. In many cities there are large celebrations which may feature concerts, late-night partying, sporting events, and fireworks, with free public transit service during peak party times in most major cities. In some areas, such as in rural Quebec, people ice fish and drink alcoholic beverages with their friends until the early hours of January 1.
 
Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year "Yuan Tan" takes place between January 21 and February 20. The exact date is fixed by the lunar calendar, in which a new moon marks the beginning of each new month.

For many families, it is a time for feasting, visiting relatives and friends, but in the city a spectacular procession takes place. The celebrations are based on bringing luck, health, happiness, and wealth till the next year. They clean their houses to rid them of lasts year's bad luck before the celebrations begin.

German New Year

In Germany people would drop molten lead into cold water and try to tell the future from the shape it made. A heart or ring shape meant a wedding, a ship a journey, and a pig plenty of food in the year ahead.

People also would leave a bit of every food eaten on New Year's Eve on their plate until after Midnight as a way of ensuring a well-stocked larder. Carp was included as it was thought to bring wealth.

New Year in India

With the growth of the western culture across the globe, New Year’s Day on January 1 in the Gregorian calendar has been one of India’s many celebrations. There are different opinions as to when New Year’s Day that falls on January 1 in the Gregorian calendar was first celebrated in India. Some say that it was observed when the British colonized India while others say that its popularity bloomed only after the 1940s. 

It is important to note that different calendars are used among different groups in India so the New Year is celebrated at different times, based when it is marked in these calendars. This article is about New Year’s Day in the Gregorian calendar, which is celebrated worldwide and falls on January 1. 

 Japanese New Year

The Japanese New Year Oshogatsu is an important time for family celebrations, when all the shops, factories and offices are closed. The Japanese celebrate the New Year on January 1, but they also keep their beliefs from Shinto their religion. To keep out evil spirits, they hang a rope of straw across the front of their houses, which stands for happiness and good luck.

 Sri Lankan New Year

In Sri Lanka they celebrate the New Year on 13 or 14 April because they use the Hindu calendar to set the date for the festival.  They clean their houses during the days leading up to the New Year, they might even paint their houses and they also make several types of sweets to be eaten on New Year's Day. No food is cooked and there are no lights or fires lit on the night before New Year. 


The celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon. The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March. A variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by various ancient cultures. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice.  Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings in the New Year

The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. That the new year once began with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is "ten."

 

How January 1st was called as New Year

January Joins the Calendar

The first time the new year was celebrated on January 1st was in Rome in 153 B.C. (In fact, the month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C., when the second king of Rome, Numa Pontilius, added the months of January and February.) The new year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly elected Roman consuls—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began their one-year tenure. But this new year date was not always strictly and widely observed, and the new year was still sometimes celebrated on March 1. 

Julian Calendar: January 1st Officially Instituted as the New Year

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was a vast improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was a lunar system that had become wildly inaccurate over the years. The Julian calendar decreed that the new year would occur with January 1, and within the Roman world, January 1 became the consistently observed start of the new year.

Middle Ages: January 1st Abolished

In medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the new year were considered pagan and unchristian like, and in 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.

Gregorian Calendar: January 1st Restored

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as new year's day. Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately, it was only gradually adopted among Protestant countries. The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire —and their American colonies— still celebrated the new year in March.

 Some general information

The Iranian New Year begins with the vemal equinox (spring). In 2007, it was on March 20th. The Assyrian New Year begins on April 1. The Punjabi begins on April 13th. The Thai and Cambodian begin their New Years between April 13th and 15th.
 
The Islamic New Year is somewhat confusing. It is based on 12 lunar months. The start date is about 11 days earlier each year. In 2008, they will have two New Years with the 12 month Gregorian Calendar.

In the modern Western World, it took quite sometime to get one particular start day of a Calendar year. It took from 1522 to 1752 for the date of January 1st to be recognized as the official date for New Years.

There are many different customs with the start of the New Year. Many regard it as a Holy Day for different religions. However, in almost every country and nation, it is a day of celebration. People party and happily look at the exchange of years.

Wishing all the viewers & readers of DO YOU KNOW THIS blog a very very happy and prosperous New  year 2013