Category: 
It’s hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone already. The biggest topic of the day it seems is how dismal the Christmas shopping season has been. But rather than dwell on the regrets of this past year, let’s focus on the upcoming New Year! A new year brings new opportunities and new things to experience in life. Celebrations will go on as usual despite the economy. Brightly lit balls, walleye, pine cones, and other odd items will drop down a pole as we count down to 2009. So where in the world did some of these odd traditions come from? Funny you should ask…
Various sources say that the earliest New Years celebrations started with the Babylonians about 4000 years ago. The Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox. (For those of us not familiar with the Equinox designations…that’s the first day of Spring.) The Romans changed the date to January 1st to try and set things straight after various emperors had toyed with the calendar.
The early Catholic Church condemned New Years festivities and labeled it paganism, and that condemnation continued through the Middle Ages.
The tradition of New Year’s resolutions dates back to the Babylonians. Their most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.
Greece introduced the symbol of the baby to signify a new year. It was their tradition to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket which represented the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility.
The Tournament of Roses parade in the U.S. dates back to 1886. The Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers that year. This parade celebrated the ripening of the orange crop in California. The Rose Bowl football game was first played as a part of the Tournament of Roses in 1902. However, that game was replaced by Roman chariot races the following year. 1916 saw the return of the football game on New Years day.
And what about “dropping the ball” on New Year’s Eve? 1907 saw the first Ball drop from the flagpole at One Times Square. How did the idea of dropping a ball for the New Year start though? Interestingly enough, a ball was dropped in the harbor at Portsmouth, England for the first time in 1829 so that sailors could set their chronometers precisely. Sailors would look through a telescope at the ball to mark the time. Strange, eh?
As 2009 rolls around, we here at PrintMyThing and PrintMyRibbon wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Sorry, no comments yet.