The celebration of the New Year is a very old tradition going back to ancient Babylon, about 4000 years ago. Then it was celebrated after the Spring Equinox.
The several changes in the calendar made by the Romans altered the first day of the year to Jan 1st.
Then the Catholic Church determined that it was a pagan celebration and forbade it.
So the tradition like we have today is "only" about 400 years old.
Some people believe that what you do during the first day of the year will influence all the other days. Also what you eat can be a sign of prosperity and good fortune. I'm not really sure I believe it but there are 2 things I do for good luck. I eat 12 raisins at midnight and I always buy new blue underwear to wear on Jan 1st.
Wether you believe this or not I wish you a very Happy New Year!
Why blue underwear? And why raisins, if we are at it?
ReplyDeleteWell it's good luck to wear something new and blue seems to be for prosperity. Some people wear red for passion.
ReplyDeleteThe raisins you are supposed to eat each raisin for each stroke of midnight and ask for a wish with each one. No idea why raisins though :-)
Thanks for the explanation! :-)
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteainda bem k escrevi aquele post...
mil bjnhos e um 2007 muito feliz
Hey, those are very similar to ours here in Uruguay, but details vary. We eat 12 *grapes*, not raisins, and we wear new *pink* underwear, instead of blue.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there are others, some of which I suspect might be a bit iffy, like tossing a glass of water out of a window (the water inside the glass, not the glass itself, lol!) while saying "out with bad vibes!), or taking a broom and sweeping those pesky "bad vibes" out of the house, or not eating chicken on that day because chickens walk backwards when they eat (I still don't see the significance of that, but oh, well).
Oh, and there are 3 things you can do if you want to travel on the year that starts:
1) you put a suitcase on the floor and walk around it three times, clockwise (I led a parade of people around it this year!)
2) you walk in and out of your house 7 times carrying the suitcase
and
3) take that same poor suitcase and walk once around the block with it.
We'll see how it goes this year!