As soon as January 1st rolls around, you hear a lot of people saying "Happy New Year!" But did you know that January 1st doesn't have to be the start of a new year? While it may seem strange to think of starting a year at any place in the calendar, the truth is that the day you have chosen for your http://www.invitations-
New Year celebration of the Babylonian lasted 11 days, and each day had its own particular mode of New Year celebration. The Romans also observe the New Year in late March, but various emperors continually tampered with their annual calendar so that the calendar soon became out of synch with the sun. To set the calendar back on track, in 153 BC, the Roman senate declared January 1st as the beginning of the New Year. But tampering with the calendar continued until 46 BC, when Julius Caesar established what is known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1st as the New Year, but in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.
Sadly, not everyone has gotten on board with New Year festivities. Early on, the Catholic Church viewed the celebration of the New Year as a form of pagan event so it was condemned. Eventually, the church decided to start throwing their own celebrations at around the same time. This made it easier for former pagans to change their ways and convert to Christianity.
Of course, no New Year would be complete without the making of resolutions for the upcoming months. While we may think of the tradition as fairly modern, the truth is that it dates back to those original Babylonian festivals. Their resolutions might have been different, such as to return equipment to someone, but the idea was the same. Our idea of using a baby too represent the beginning of a new 365-day cycle can be traced back to ancient Greece. Around 600 BC, babies were paraded in baskets in honor of the wine god Dionysus and to celebrate fertility. Egyptians also used babies as a symbol for New Years' rebirth.
Even though the Catholic Church did eventually relent on the celebrations, they didn't approve of the baby symbolism at first. But the symbol continued to be loved by the people so they modified their position and decided to permit the use of a baby as a symbol for the New Year. The only condition was that the baby was supposed to represent baby Jesus. If you're wondering how this tradition reached North America, you can blame the German immigrants. They brought the idea with them to this country.
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Another belief about luck and New Years is the idea that certain types of food can inspire good luck for the rest of the year. If you're having a New Year party on January 1st, you might want to consider adding some of these foods on your menu. Black-eyed peas and ham is supposed to be good luck foods for some parts of the United States. Pigs and their products represent prosperity which is definitely good for the New Year even if it wasn't so good for the pig. Cabbage leaves are also considered to be symbols of prosperity so eating them is also good. Rice is another supposedly lucky food. Remember that for your http://www.cardsshoppe.com/
