It’s become a reflex, something we do without thinking, it just pops out of our mouths during the last week or so of December. “Happy New Year, “ ..."thank you, and the same to you.”

So, where did this all get started and what does it really mean? New Year is the oldest of all holidays and was first observed in Babylon about 4,000 years ago. Around 2,000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23rd, although they didn’t have a calendar.

The Romans also celebrated New Year in late March, but emperors were prone to messing about with the calendar which became out of sync with the sun and the seasons. In 46BC Julius Caesar settled on what was to become known as the Julian calendar and January 1 was set as the beginning of the year.

For several centuries the Romans continued celebrating the new year, while the early Catholic church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrent with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year’s Day was no different. New Year is still observed as the Feast of Christ’s Circumcision by some denominations.

During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to the New Year festivities. January 1st has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.

Through the centuries some interesting, if somewhat odd, traditions and superstitions evolved. The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysius, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility.

Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth. The use of an image of a baby with a New Year banner as a symbolic representation of the new year was brought to early America by the Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.

Traditionally, it was thought that one’s fortunes in the year ahead would be affected by what one did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of the new year.

It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year’s Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall, dark-haired man.

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolises “coming full circle,” completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.

In many parts of the US, people celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolises prosperity.

Cabbage is another “good luck” vegetable that is consumed on New Year’s Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year’s Day.

Sing in the New Year

The song, “Auld Lang Syne,” is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700s, it was first published in 1796 after Burns’ death.

Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scots tune, “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long ago,” or simply “the good old days.” If you don’t know the tune, you can hear it by clicking here, and here are the lyrics:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here’s a hand, my trusty friend
And gie’s a hand o’ thine
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne

A great website to check out New Year traditions in just about every corner of the world is: http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm