How do you celebrate the New Year? The New Year is celebrated in different ways around the world.
- The ancient Persians gave eggs as gifts to celebrate the New Year. This symbolized productiveness.
- In some parts of Denmark, people save broken dishes throughout the year and throw them at the door of friends and family at midnight. The deeper your pile of broken dishes – the more you’re loved.
- When religion was suppressed in Soviet Russia, Santa/St. Nick was replaced with Grandfather Frost, who embodied the spirit of winter. Grandfather Frost brought gifts on New Year’s and placed them under the “New Year tree”.
- 40 to 45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Most commonly, resolutions are about health and exercise.
Happy New Year. If anyone knows, please clarify: In some parts of Denmark, people save broken dishes throughout the year and throw them at the door of friends and family at midnight. The deeper your pile of broken dishes – the more you’re loved. In the Arabic culture, it is very offensive to throw broken dishes at the door of friends and family. Maybe OK to throw them full of hummus or baba ganouj.
Hi Yasin,
Happy New Year! Thanks for your comments. I found this Danish New Year custom a few times on the good old World Wide Web. (for example see https://www.estilonordico.com/2021/12/nordic-new-year-traditions/). But – I’d love to hear some firsthand confirmation of this. It’s an unusual thing – especially to those of us who are not Danish and have no understanding of the background and circumstances that brought this practice about. Culture is like that sometimes.
In India, in addition to the “western” new year on January 1, we celebrate several new years. Holi is the most popular one (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi). In my state Jharkhand (and Bihar and Nepal as well), there is also Jude Sheetal or Maithili New Year. It’s usually on 14th April. There’s also Muharram, the Islamic new year — yet another holiday for us!
Happy new year, Bob! 🙂
Happy New Year! I did know about Holi or Jude Sheetal. Do these celebrations mark a new year that is counted? For example, by the Gregorian calendar the current year is 2023AD, according to the Jewish calendar it’s 5788. I’m curious about what year it is in India.