New Year Celebrations
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New Year is the time to say a bye to the past things and look forward into the future with heart full of love and eyes filled with dreams. The New Year Celebration is the occasion to welcome New Year with open arms hoping it to bring good
health and wealth in your life. People have many dreams associated with New Year. All the kid's and adults participate in various New Year activities to welcome New Year in the best possible way.
The celebration of New Year is one of the oldest known holidays. It was started around 2000 B.C. by the Babylonians with the appearance of the first New Moon after the first day of Spring. New Year is celebrated on different dates all over
the world. It is because people follow different calendars around the world. Yet all people look forward to getting together with family and loved ones on the 1st of January.
History of New Year Celebrations
New Year's Day is said to be the oldest and most universally celebrated holiday. The tradition of celebrating New Year's Day is said to have started by Romans circa 153 BC. Romans celebrated their New Year on March 1 according to old Roman Calendar. Even before
the Romans, Mesopotamians are said to have celebrated new years at the time of the vernal equinox in mid-March around 2000 BC. After a series of changes in calendar, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar still in use today, and set January
1 as New Year's Day.
Exchanging Greetings on New Year
On the New Year's Day people wear bright new clothes and spring clean their houses. At several places people follow the tradition of 'first footing' and do not leave the house before someone comes in first. First footing person should ideally get some gifts
and is accorded a warm welcome by the people. Later, people move out to exchange greetings and New Year gifts with their friends and dear ones. Popular New Year gifts include cake, flowers, chocolates, decorative and New Year Greeting cards. The idea behind
exchanging gifts and greetings is to give warm wishes for a New Year and strengthen the bond of love shared with dear ones.
The Church's View of New Year Celebrations
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently
with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.
During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years. January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.