North America
Canada and The United States of America
I’m Canadian so I’ll start here. Typically, in the US and Canada we celebrate the end of the year and the beginning of the new year at a New Year’s Eve Party. The New Year’s Eve party might be a house party, social club party, restaurant/bar party or a public party hosted by a community (city or town).
TypicalTraditions include:
-Putting on your party best
- Toasting with champagne at midnight
- Fireworks displays
- Wearing silly paper party hats and blowing noisemakers
- Watching the crystal ball drop in New York City’s Time Square at midnight
- Singing of “Auld Lange Syne” at midnight. Auld Lange Syne is a song of renewal and goodwill based on Robert Burns’ poem written in 1788
- Kissing the person next to you at midnight
- Shaking hands and wishing a happy new year to those around you
- Wishing people a happy new year for the next several days (the first time you see them)
The biggest celebrations are in New York City’s Time Square in the US and for Canada, Nathan Philip’s Square in Toronto. Of course most cities in both countries have celebrations as well.

Early New Year's Celebrations
The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley, which was cut in the spring) that involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days. In addition to the new year, Atiku celebrated the mythical victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk over the evil sea goddess Tiamat and served an important political purpose: It was during this time that a new king was crowned or that the current ruler’s divine mandate was symbolically renewed.
Throughout antiquity, civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event. In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The first day of the Chinese new year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice.

New Year's Traditions
In many countries, New Year’s celebrations begin on the evening of December 31—New Year’s Eve—and continue into the early hours of January 1. Revelers often enjoy meals and snacks thought to bestow good luck for the coming year. In Spain and several other Spanish-speaking countries, people bolt down a dozen grapes-symbolizing their hopes for the months ahead-right before midnight. In many parts of the world, traditional New Year’s dishes feature legumes, which are thought to resemble coins and herald future financial success; examples include lentils in Italy and black-eyed peas in the southern United States. Because pigs represent progress and prosperity in some cultures, pork appears on the New Year’s Eve table in Cuba, Austria, Hungary, Portugal and other countries. Ring-shaped cakes and pastries, a sign that the year has come full circle, round out the feast in the Netherlands, Mexico, Greece and elsewhere. In Sweden and Norway, meanwhile, rice pudding with an almond hidden inside is served on New Year’s Eve; it is said that whoever finds the nut can expect 12 months of good fortune.
Other customs that are common worldwide include watching fireworks and singing songs to welcome the new year, including the ever-popular "Auld Lang Syne" in many English-speaking countries. The practice of making resolutions for the new year is thought to have first caught on among the ancient Babylonians, who made promises in order to earn the favor of the gods and start the year off on the right foot. (They would reportedly vow to pay off debts and return borrowed farm equipment.)
In the United States, the most iconic New Year’s tradition is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City's Times Square at the stroke of midnight. Millions of people around the world watch the event, which has taken place almost every year since 1907. Over time, the ball itself has ballooned from a 700-pound iron-and-wood orb to a brightly patterned sphere 12 feet in diameter and weighing in at nearly 12,000 pounds. Various towns and cities across America have developed their own versions of the Times Square ritual, organizing public drops of items ranging from pickles (Dillsburg, Pennsylvania) to possums (Tallapoosa, Georgia) at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Top Traditions
With each successive wave of immigrants, new customs have been thrown into the American melting pot. How many of these customs are part of your New Year's celebration?
NEW YEAR'S EVE

Toasting has a long history.
1. Attending Masquerade Parties Early peoples tended to greet the new year by wearing masks, making lots of noise, and indulging in alcoholic and sexual excess. They did this for superstitious reasons -- to protect themselves from evil spirits. Wearing a mask at the start of the new year is a metaphoric way to keep evil from following you, so to speak, into the new year.
2. Singing "Auld Lang Syne" The custom of singing "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight on New Year's Eve originated in the British Isles around the end of the 18th century, when it was common to end all parties with the song, usually with celebrants joining hands in a circle.
This song was especially popular in Scotland, because the melody stemmed from a traditional Scottish folk tune, and the plaintive lyrics are generally credited to Scotland's national folk poet, Robert Burns. "Auld lang syne" translates to "old long since," meaning the good old days.
3. Making a Toast Toasting (see "Tips for Toasting") has been a tradition since the very first tankard was raised. On New Year's Eve we lift our glasses to honor our friends and bless our past and future. The clinking of glasses was added in medieval times because a good toast was believed to repel the devil, and noise would send evil spirits scurrying. (This is also the reason we use noisemakers or clinking pots and pans at midnight on New Year's Eve.)
4. Watching the Ball Drop in Times Square What New Year's Eve party would be complete without that beloved American institution -- Dick Clark's countdown live from Times Square? The custom of dropping a ball to mark the time stems from Greenwich, England, where every day at 1 p.m. a large ball descends from a tall spire atop the Royal Observatory. There it could be seen by ships in the harbor. In centuries past this enabled the sailors to accurately set the clocks they used for navigation.

| | | | History of New Year's EveNew Year's Eve is December 31 of every year. It is celebrated in countries that use the Gregorian calendar with the United States, Australia, British Isles, North & South America, Europe, Scandinavia and (the former) Soviet Union as the main regions in the world who welcome in a new year.It is exactly at the stroke of midnight on December 31 of the current year that marks the transition to the New Year ahead. Celebrations may be wild parties or solemn times of prayer. Some participants will dress up in silly outfits and wear comical hats, drink champagne (or other liquors of their choice) and use traditional items called "noisemakers" to express their joy and hope for the new year ahead. Unfortunately, with some people this celebratory behavior gets taken a bit too far. Some people have been known to make improper advances to co-workers at parties, throw their arms around total strangers on the streets or in crowds and well perhaps to other things that would be considered totally unacceptable any other day of the year.And yet, there are others who attend midnight masses at their church or synagogue; or, get together in large crowds such as New York City's Time Square to watch the "ball drop." In London crowds gather in Trafalgar Square to count down the closing of the old year and welcome in the new. In Atlanta, Georgia (USA) a giant Peach is dropped. This began as a competition with New York's Apple. However, today New York now drops a laser and hand-cut crystal ball.Some historians feel that our New Year's Eve celebrations can be traced back to an ancient Roman observance around the time of the Winter Solstice in December called "Saturnalia." This pagan holiday was known for totally letting go all discipline and rules for behavior and was known to get out of hand (just like some New Year's Eve celebrations today).In the 18th century, New Year's Eve revelry in cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore often ended with street demonstrations, violence, and vandalism. Groups of men and boys were known to toot tin horns, shout, scream, yell, set off firecrackers, knock down barricades such as fences and gates, break windows and (in a few cases) burglarize the homes of some wealthy citizens in the area.To help curb the problem of over-zealous celebrators on December 31, and to protect those who want to bring in the New Year quietly, many cities in the United States started a popular trend called "The First Night" celebrations. The first "First Night" was held in Boston in 1976 to replace the boisterous partying with cultural events, performances, and non-alcoholic beverages with food in an outdoor setting. For those who prefer to have a very quiet New Year, many stay home and watch the "dropping ball" or fireworks offered on television stations both locally and/or nationally or worldwide simultaneously. Auld Lang Syne is our midi. The custom of singing this song on New Years Eve goes back to the British Isles from the 18th century when guests ended a party standing in a circle and singing this song. The custom first was rooted in Scotland, because the lyrics were written in 1788 by Robert Burns, their favorite folk poet of the time. (Later on another version of this song was used in 1783 in the opera "Rosina" by William Shield.) But most musicologists feel that Auld Lang Syne came from a traditional Scottish folk melody.What does this song mean? In the Scottish dialect, auld lang syne is "old long since" -- aka "the good old days." The traditional lyrics begin with, "Should old acquantance be forgot and never brought to mind..." And the entire song's message merely means to just forget about the past and look ahead to the new year with hope. Even the rowdiest of parties has often ended with quiet drunks singing this song as a tribute to the past year. But many of us sing it without really now what we are saying, we just sing it to be part of the the auld lang gang of the night! :)Using noise to welcome in a new year goes back to ancient times when it was felt that noise scared off evil spirits. Imagine what our ancestors would have thought about all the high-tech speakers, amplifiers and such today? To them, the world would be pretty pure with all this noise! :) But vary few of us link New Years with evil spirits ( spirits that you drink perhaps but not any other kind), they still feel noisemakers are a must for New Year's parties. In Denmark, they "smash in the new year" by banging on the doors of their friends' homes and throwing pieces of broken pottery against the sides of the houses. Now if everyone is out doing this, then well...hey is anyone home to even notice? In Japan, dancers go from house to house at Oshogatsu making strange noises and rattling and pounding bamboo sticks and banging on drums. In many parts of the US, firecrackers are set off at midnight to mark the new year. This is also the main celebration in Viet Nam, Hawaii and South America. | |