In New York City, masses of tourists and a few brave locals cram together in Times Square to watch the dropping ball and celebrate the New Year. While champagne and noise-makers now characterize New York New Years Eve, there are long traditions of celebrating the New Year in other cultures around the world.
The New Year's Eve has been celebrated for thousands of years, but the exact date that we celebrate today was originally established by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.E. Other cultures celebrate the New Year at different times of the year and with different traditions. Chinese New Year celebrations include wearing new clothes, often red, and New Year gatherings with family and friends. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, has traditions of going to services and the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn.
Modern day New Year’s Eve celebrations throughout the world begin in New Zealand and Australia due to the time change, and Sydney’s massive firework displays are often broadcast nationally. The first major city to see the New Year is Gisborne in New Zealand, which celebrates with fireworks, street carnivals, and in recent years Queenstown, New Zealand hosts an international cricket game on New Year’s Eve Day.
In Brazil it is customary to dress in white for good luck, gather with friends and families on Cobacabana beach and watch one of the best fire work displays in the nation with copious supplies of food and drinks. Tradition in Venezuela also has an emphasis on bringing good luck into the New Year. It is popular in Venezuela to tune into radio countdowns that are interspersed with festive tunes.
New Year’s Eve in France is called le Reveillon, and is celebrated with family and friends eating a feast with traditional food such as foie gras and festive desserts. Like in the United States, France’s New Year’s traditions include resolutions and champagne. Italy’s New Year’s Eve event traditions also include certain kinds of food. In this case, Italian sausage and lentils are the appropriate New Year’s Eve snacks. Tradition in Italy dictates wearing red underwear and dropping unused items out of the window as a new beginning.
New Year’s Eve is celebrated differently through out the world. Whether it be a traditional food, certain color of underwear, or best place to catch the fireworks, celebration seems to be the global theme of New Year’s Eve.
