New Year's Around the World

Ever wonder how the New Year is celebrated in other countries. Here are just a few of the many New Year's traditions around the world.

CHINESE

• The Chinese New Year "Yuan Tan" takes place between January 21 and February 20. For many families, it is a time for feasting, visiting relatives and friends, but in the city a spectacular procession takes place. The celebrations are based on bringing luck, health, happiness, and wealth till the next year.There are street parades where thousands of people line the streets to watch the procession of floats in the New Year parade.Chinese people believe that evil spirits dislike loud noises so they decorate their houses with plastic firecrackers. The loud noises are intended to frighten away evil spirits and bad luck that the spirits might bring.The feast on New Year is always big for the first day of the year. If the New Year falls on the year of any particular animal the Chinese try not to eat that animal’s meat.

SWITZERLAND

• In Switzerland people celebrate Old Sylvester's Day on 13 January according to the Julian calendar. People go through the streets dressed in costumes and hats representing good and evil spirits. In Switzerland people believe good luck comes from letting a drop of cream land on the floor New Years Day. This was said to bring a year of overflowing abundance.

LATIN AMERICA

• When the clock strikes midnight they eat 12 grapes one with every toll to bring good luck for the next 12 months of the New Year. Sometimes the grapes are washed down with wine. Theater productions and movies are interrupted to carry out this custom.

RUSSIAN

• In Russia Santa is replaced with Grandfather Frost. He looks much like Santa Claus but arrives on New Year's Eve with his bag of toys. He wears blue instead of red. Father Frost can punish any evil doer by freezing them. Often kids dance around the tree, tell rhymes to Father Frost then receive their presents. They have large decorated trees in the centers of the major cities. The most formal New Year's celebration is party held at the Kremlin. As many as 50,000 attendance tickets are sold in the weeks before the annual event. The Russian meal on New Year's is primarily meat and potato dishes.

EUROPE

• In Europe the custom of first-footing is practiced. This is where the first person to enter the house after midnight must be male and is supposed to bring good luck to the household. The visitor is also supposed to bring a gift such as money, bread, or coal, this are suppose to ensure the family will have plenty of these in the coming year.

SRI LANKA

• In Sri Lanka they celebrate the New Year on 13 or 14 April because they use the Hindu calendar to set the date for the festival.They clean their houses during the days leading up to the New Year, they might even paint their houses and they also make several types of sweets to be eaten on New Year's Day.No food is cooked and there are no lights or fires lit on the night before New Year.

INDIA

• The Indian New Year festival is called Diwali and is a festival of lights. The festival is celebrated differently in the various districts of India.The Hindus of the north, Diwali is the end of the old year and the start of the new. For three days in late October early November every town and village shines and glows with thousands of lights. Their homes are decorated with little oil lamps known as diwa. These little lights are found in temples, houses, along window ledges and along garden paths. In cities electrical lights are used to light up buildings. These are used to drive out evil and is replace evil with goodness.Diwali is also a religious festival. Hindus believed in the god Prince Rama. He lost his kingdom and his wife was stolen away by a demon named Ravana. After many battles with the demon helped by the monkey warrior Hanuman, overcame Ravana and rescued his wife. The Hindus celebrate the happy ending of this story. They recall the sadness and triumph of Rama, and of him being crowned King. Good winning over evil, light over darkness.