New Year Traditions

New Year Traditions

Each country has its own way of celebrating the new year.  In many European countries, the New Year celebrations are more important than those for Christmas.

• Scotland - Hogmanay
• Maeshowe Orkney Isles
• New Year in Europe
• Happy New Year in Different Languages
• They do a great New Year celebration in Hong Hong

Scotland - Hogmanay

What is Hogmanay?
The Hogmanay festivities get underway about lunch time on the 31st of December.  At about 2 minutes to midnight a lone piper plays, then after the chimes of midnight everyone sings Auld Lang Syne.  In rural areas you may find first footing dances, called ceilidhs.  It is considered lucky if the first person to cross the threshold is a tall dark stranger.  This superstition may have resulted from fear of fair Viking raiders who were bent on rape and pillage.

Possibly a more modern traditions is exchanging gifts known as 'Hogmananys'.  Indeed it is interesting to observe which countries and cultures exchange gifts at Christmas, and which exchange their presents (or 'Hogmananys') at new year.  What shaped Hogmanay from the 17th to the 1950s was that Scots rejected Christmas because they thought it a Catholic and an English festival.  As a result Protestant Scots worked through Christmas Day and Boxing Day then celebrated Hogmanay with a vengeance.

Derivation of the Word 'Hogmanay'
The majority opinion is that comes from the Gaelic oge maidne meaning 'New Morning'.  However, several French words have also been suggested as the source.  Hoguinané, or anguillanneuf, which roughly translated means New Year Gift.

Perhaps the best way of summing up the Scot's attitude to celebrating Hogmanay is to declare the 2nd of January as a public holiday - to recover from the new celebrations.  It is worth noting that there is big difference between the raucous celebrations with strangers in Edinburgh and Glasgow; compared with the more ritualized celebration where you know everyone in Scottish Islands such as Lewis.

Maeshowe Orkney Isles (Scotland) Cairn built 5,500 years ago

At the winter solstice, the sun is so low in the Orkney islands that its rays light up the back wall of the cairn.  As the midwinter sun slips below the horizon, its last rays shine directly through Maeshowe's entrance passage to illuminate the rear wall of the central chamber.

This solar phenomenon only happens once a year on the shortest day - weather permitting.  It's fascinating to think how our ancestors not only calculated what would happen, but had the time and patience to construct the aperture.

New Year in Europe

France - New Year's Eve is:  La Saint-Sylvestre  Jour de l'An (New Year's Day) 

The French call New Year's Eve La Saint-Sylvestre.  It is celebrated with a feast called le Réveillon de Saint-Sylvestre.  This tradition includes dishes such as foie gras washed down with champagne.  The event can be a dinner with friends and family or a communal ball (une soirée dansante).

Following la Saint-Sylvestre is Jour de l'An (New Year's Day); this is a time for meeting friends and family and exchanging good wishes and maybe gifts.  The French round off the holiday season on Epiphany.

Italy - La Festa di San Silvestro

Germany - Saint Sylvester

Chaul Chnam Thmey - Cambodia

Ōmisoka - Japan

German New Year Tradition - Neujahrsbräuche

Bleigießen pronounced BLYE-ghee-sen)  'Lead pouring' (das Bleigießen) is an old custom where sages read molten lead, much like mystics read tea leaves.  What they do is melt a lead cherry sized piece of lead a tablespoon (by holding a flame under the spoon) and then poured the molten lead into a bowl of water. The resulting pattern is interpreted to predict the coming year.  Common interpretations include, a ball (der Ball), indicates that luck will roll your way. What people fear is any sign of a cross pattern (das Kreuz) as that signifies a death.

They do a great New Year celebration in Hong Hong

I would love to be in one of those boats out on the water.

Wales Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare)

P.S. Please write to Will and Guy if you have any examples of New Year humor.

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