Celebrate New Years Around the Globe with IDC
People around the world have discovered many ways and reasons for welcoming in the new year. Throughout antiquity, emerging cultures developed their own traditions with mostly cultural, agricultural, and religious meanings pinned to the annual celebration. Over 4000 years ago, it was the Babylonians who were first to establish a specified time to observe the coming of a new year. Due to the earth’s minimal tilt toward the sun, ancient astronomers observed near equal amounts of daylight and darkness twice a year due. Matched with key lunar cycles, it would be the first new moon following the vernal equinox each year when Babylonians would celebrate the gift of a new beginning.
Peter O'Donovan: Onboarding International Staff
Over his 30-year career, Peter O’Donovan has traveled the world, managing multiple properties as an Estate Manager and Chief of Staff for high-net worth clients. He has vetted, placed, and trained staff throughout the global village as well as implemented guidelines for health and well-being, managed senior care plans, given lectures in Harvard square, and launched a nationally-recognized business that was featured in Oprah Magazine, the Boston Globe, Gourmet+, and Travel and Leisure Magazine.
Throughout his career, Peter's honed skills and stellar services have been commissioned worldwide by individuals and families in locations like Cape Cod, Manhattan, Palm Beach, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Bangkok, and London. He has managed luxury households while catering to dignitaries, royals, celebrities; organized fundraising and political events; coordinated corporate and medical events, including the Mayo Clinic; and worked alongside celebrity chefs Daniel Boulud and Charlie Trotter.
Peter’s upbeat Irish character and hospitality, along with his U.S. based International Domestic Consulting placement agency, work in tandem with the Hutchinson’s Domestic Staff team in London to provide support for global customers and candidates. Whether in formal settings or casual living, Peter understands how to successfully deliver professional support to you, bringing only the very best candidates forward, based on your unique requirements and lifestyle.
Globally…. New Year’s Is Filled with Celebrations
While most cultures celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1, there are numerous variances as to when celebrations occur as well as why and how people honor their unique traditions with extravagant meals, dance, music, parties, fireworks, and (of course) resolutions. Listed below is a quick trip around the globe that focuses on how cultures choose to celebrate their new year:
- Oceania New Year – When it comes to ringing in the traditional new year celebrated on the eve of December 31 and the first tick of the clock on January 1, Oceania is the first place on earth to celebrate each Gregorian New Year.
- Antarctica New Year – It can be unsettling to watch the New Year countdown on a clock in a continent that has no official time zone, but on New Year’s Day in Antarctica, the stake marking the geographic south pole is moved 10 meters to compensate for annual movement of the ice.
- Japanese New Year – Shōgatsu is a public holiday observed in Japan on January 1–3. One of the customs is that people in Japan follow includes eating toshikoshi soba, or buckwheat noodles.
- Chinese New Year – During the 20thcentury, the Chinese celebrate the Gregorian New Year as a public holiday, but the Qingming is the festival for the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated on the new moon.
- Hmong New Year – Traditionally celebrated in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, the annual celebration honors ancestors during this holiday that is well-rooted in agricultural history and religious traditions.
- Russian New Year – The 4-week winter holiday cycle starts from Catholic Christmas, followed by Gregorian New Year and Eastern Orthodox Christmas on January 7, and then ends with Old New Year on January 14.
- Bengali New Year – Baishakh is the first month of the Bengali calendar and Pahela Baishakh begins on the first day at the beginning of the harvest season. Bengalis enjoy feasts with culturally rich performances
- Hindu New Year –Diwali celebrations last for five days (usually in mid-October to mid-November) with fireworks and families sharing sweets and gifts. The festival of lights is enjoyed by millions around the world.
- Persian New Year – The Persian New Year dates back 4,000 years. Before the vernal equinox, a deep cleaning of homes make way for a new start celebrated with food, gifts, dance, music, and kite flying.
- Jewish New Year –Rosh Hashanah is considered to be a time of rejoicing and introspection. People eat foods that hold special meanings, such as dates, leeks, beets, pomegranates, and honey-covered apples followed by prayer.
- South Africa New Year – South Africans party all night. People indulge in extravagant dinners, drinks, and dance. Church bells chime to officially declare the New Year on the stroke of midnight.
- Germanic New Year – The biggest party of Silvester is New Year's Eve at the Brandenburg Gate. There are celebrations with friends and strangers at local clubs but many Germans quietly enjoy New Year’s Day with music and theater.
- Greek New Year – Greeks believe that Prothronia is the time for good luck and fortune therefore many choose to play cards or even the lottery. January 1 is not just New Year’s Day in Greece, but also St. Basil’s Day.
- Roman New Year – Capodanno literally translates to Head of the Year. Whereas Christmas in Italy is very family-oriented, New Year's Eve is much less so. Tradition dictates that seven dried fruit and nuts be eaten for good luck.
- French New Year - Many people in France start New Year's Day at midnight while celebrating with friends and drinking champagne. Private fireworks displays are common along with the Champs-Elysees light show.
- Spanish New Year – New Year's Eve in Madrid is a big thing, and the locals have their own way of celebrating Puerta del Sol. The most famous Spanish tradition is to eat 12 grapes at midnight, one for each gong.
- United Kingdom New Year – December 31 is known as Hogmanay in Scotland and New Year's Eve in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Many cities and towns in the UK celebrate with fireworks and parades.
- New York City New Year – In the United States, the most iconic New Year's tradition is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City's Times Square at the stroke of midnight. Millions of people around the world watch the event, which has taken place almost every year since 1907.
- Canadian New Year – Many parties are at people's homes or in bars and clubs. However, in some rural areas, particularly in the province of Quebec, people spend the night ice fishing with groups of friends.
When it comes to ringing in the traditional new year (celebrated on the eve of December 31 until the initial tick of the clock on January 1), the uninhabited Howland Islands and Baker Islands, near the western United States, are the last places on earth to welcome the New Year at 12 pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Ancient Calendars Still Cause Holiday Dates to Vary
As cultures around the world began to develop their own calendars, the dates for celebrating the new year differed with the cycles of the sun and moon; and lunisolar calendars would be based on both. Nonetheless, a couple of Babylonian traditions started centuries before introduced two of the most common traditions that are still celebrated today. Making promises to the gods in the form of resolutions in hopes of being rewarded with good favor and honoring the arrival of the new year over a twelve day period.
Variances in the Gregorian calendar and other calendars, would cause the new year to fall on the same day in one part of the world and over a range of days during the same time of year in others. During Roman times, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ was celebrated on January 1. In accordance with Jewish tradition, the occasion marked the eighth day when a male child was formally given his name. The world would have to wait for the second king of Rome to add the month of January (and February) to the Julian calendar before New Year’s could be celebrated on the first day of January.