Around the World on NEW YEAR’S EVE

 

EVERY COUNTRY HAS ITS OWN TRADITION STYLES OF CELEBRATING THE EVENING OF DECEMBER  31,AND USHERING IN THE NEW YEAR. HERE SOME OF THE STYLES OF PEOPLE OF USHERING IN THE NEW YEAR AROUND THE GLOBE.

SCOTLAND:

                      The New year in Scotland is called HAGMANAY. The people in Scotland follow a ritual wherein one can find barrels of tar set afire and gradually rolled down the streets in the village of areas in Scotland. The ritual symbolizes that the old year is burnt and the new year is going to began.

GREECE:

                The Greek children leaves their shoes by the fire side on New Year’s Day(also the Festival of Saint Basil in Greece) with the hope that he will come and fill their shoes with gifts.

MEXICO:

                 In Venezuela,Argentina,Bolivia and Mexico those with hopes of traveling in the New Year carry a suitcase around the house at mid night. Some even carry it around the block to ensure traveling at greater distances.

CHINA:

             The Chinese believe that there are evil spirits that roam the earth and they accordingly burn crackers to scare the evil spirits. The doors and windows of every Chinese homes are sealed with paper to keep the evil demons out.Some people also wear in a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year , because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.

USA:

        Many parts of the US ring in the New Year by eating black-eyed peas accompanied by wither hog jowls or ham as they are considered good luck in many cultures around the US.

SPAIN:

             The Spanish eat 12 grapes as the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. This peculiar ritual originated in the twentieth century when freak weather conditions resulted in an unseasonable bumper harvest of grapes. Left with so many grapes at Christmas time, the king of Span then came up with the idea of the New Year ritual.

COLUMBIA:

                      In Columbia,Cuba and Puerto Rico families stuff a life-size male doll and dress it up on old clothes from-each family member. At the Stoke of midnight,this ‘Mr Old Year’ is set on fire with the simple belief that burning a stuffed doll will so away with all the past grief and bring in happiness in the coming year.

JAPAN:

             On the New Year Eve, the Japanese eat a bowl of buckwheat noodles called “TOSHIKOSHISOBA”(year-crossing noodles) and listen for the sound of the Buddhist temple bells, which were rung 108 times at midnight. The sound of these bells is said to cleanse the listeners of the 108 sins or evil passion that plague every