New Year Celebrations Around the World

From January 1st to Chinese New Year, It's a Time For Celebration

Nov 8, 2009

New Year, although it falls on January 1st for followers of the Gregorian calander, this is not the case across the world.

Sunrise on January 1st will, as usual, herald the dawn of a new day and with it the start of the New Year. The New Year's tradition of "out with the old, in with the new" is celebrated on many different dates and in many different ways around the globe.

The New Year Festival

The New Year festival is amongst the oldest and most universally observed of all festivals falling through out the calendar year, free from the religious observances of Christmas, Easter, Passover and the like, it is celebrated on various dates throughout the year.

Like the date for Christmas Day, which was not set as December 25th until 440 AD, the New Year festival has been moved to various dates throughout the calendar.

The Roman republican calendar observed December 21st, the winter solstice as the beginning of the year until the time of Julius Caesar (100-44BC.) It was Caesar who introduced the Julian Calendar format, still in use today, of three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, with three hundred and sixty-six in a leap year, and in doing so moved the New Year festival to January 1st.

Whilst in England, Anglo Saxons were celebrating the New Year on December 25th until William the Conqueror moved the festival to January 1st. However, this in turn was once again changed to align with Catholic Europe and the date subsequently changed March 25th.

In 1582, during the reign of Pope Gregory XIII, the Gregorian calendar was adopted and with it, again the festival was moved back to January 1st. Although named after the Pope, the calendar was actually invented by the Neapolitan astronomer Aloysius Lilius and perfected by Clavius. But once again it was almost two hundred years before Britain followed suit, with Scotland moving the festival back to January 1st in 1660; England made the change in 1752.

So with the New Year celebrations observed on January 1st for almost two and quarter centuries, one can traverse the calendar in search of many different New Year's celebrations.

Chinese New Year

For the party animal, the Chinese New Year celebrations last for a month falling in late January or early February. The celebrations are preceded by the exorcism of ghosts followed by theatrical performances, lion dancing and elaborate firework displays.

In contrast, for those with a slight hangover, but still in the mood to party, the Tibetan festival in February is relatively low-key. It is celebrated with feasts, visiting friends and relations, along with the relaxation of strict monastic discipline.

The Festival of Truit

Truit, Thailand’s New Year festival falls in March or April, a hotchpotch of the country’s culture, bringing with it the exorcism of ghosts by Buddhist monks who are given gifts of food in return. It is also a time when the country’s Hindu’s make oblations to their Gods. People meeting in the street, playfully throw water over one another in greeting, and gambling, a pastime normally frowned upon is permitted during the duration of the three-day festival.

Jewish New Year

For those who are still going strong, the Jewish calendar, a complex combination of solar and lunar cycles begins with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year starting on the first day of Tishri falling between September 6th and October 5th.

The first rays from the sun peek over the horizon and greet the dawn of the New Year at different times of year, depending upon the culture.

The copyright of the article New Year Celebrations Around the World in Religious Tolerance is owned by Lynda Osborne. Permission to republish New Year Celebrations Around the World in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.