New Year's Eve
From Freepedia
New Year's Eve is a celebration held the day before New Year's Day, on December 31, the final day of the Gregorian year.
New Year's Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year's Day. In 20th-century Western practice, the celebration involves partying until the moment of the transition of the year, generally at local midnight. Drinking champagne is also a major part of the festivities.
Within many cultures the use of fireworks and other noise making is a major part of the celebration in cities such as London, Paris, Sydney, and Hong Kong.
New Year's Eve is a public non-working holiday in the following countries, among others: Argentina, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, and Venezuela.
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Localized celebrations
Australia
With crowds of over 1.2million people Sydney is one of the largest annual New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide benefiting from the Harbour City's warm summer weather and spectacular natural amphitheatre.Over 80,000 fireworks are traditionally set off from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and four other firing points covering 6kms along Sydney Harbour. The event can be seen from a 16km radius around Sydney and attracts an average of 300,000 international tourists each year.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong people usually gather in Central, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront to see the lightworks on the skyscrapers along the harbour and to count down the New Year at spots like Times Square and Ocean Terminal.
United Kingdom
100,000 people gather for an organised hogmanay street party in Edinburgh, with fireworks being set off from the castle and other major hills around the city. In London, a fireworks display is held around the London Eye. Bideford in North Devon is also famous for its New Year celebrations.
United States
For about four decades Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians would serenade the United States from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in New York City.
In the United States New Year's Eve is a major social holiday. In the past 100 years the dropping of the 'ball' on top of One Times Square in New York City, broadcast worldwide, is a major component of the celebration. The 1,070-pound, 6-foot-diameter Waterford crystal ball located high above Times Square is lowered starting at 23:59 and reaches the bottom of its tower at the stroke of midnight on January 1. It is sometimes referred to as "the big apple" like the city itself; the custom derives from the time signal that used to be given at noon in harbours.
Now, many cities in America have their own local version of the celebration, even while keeping an eye on New York, and the New York-centric aspect of the holiday is diminishing. Many cities, echoing the New York tradition of dropping a ball, also drop or lower an object (or an enlarged representation of an object), usually one of local significance. Some of these include:
- Atlanta, Georgia - a peach
- Miami, Florida - an orange
- Raleigh, North Carolina - an acorn
- Flagstaff, Arizona - a pine cone
- Key West, Florida - a conch shell, a pirate wench and a red high-heel shoe
- Brasstown, North Carolina - a live opossum in a cage
- Port Clinton, Ohio - a walleye fish
- Cleona, Pennsylvania - a pretzel
- Hummelstown, Pennsylvania - a lollipop
- Liverpool, Pennsylvania - a canal boat
- Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania - a wrench
There are also things going up. In Seattle the countdown is done with an elevator at the Space Needle, with fireworks from the top of the needle at midnight.
Spain
Each city on Spain has its particular place where people stand waiting for the New Year. The most important place is located at 'La Puerta del Sol', a big square on the capital, Madrid. On this place, crowded by thousands of people, a centenary clock is lowered starting at 23:59:48. On nearly all spanish houses, people watch on TV (narrated by famous spanish singers, actors, actress ...) this countdown and each person have a small glass, or recipient, with twelve green grapes. Each grape is eaten for each second left to the New Year.
Croatia
New year in Croatia is a traditional gathering in houses, hotels and discotheques for partys and in mass public, on city sqares, a lot of fireworks are used of all kinds.
There is a tradition of playing picigin in Split on the New Year's Day, regardless of the weather conditions, when sea temperature rarely exceeds 10 degrees Celsius.
Watch Night
Many Christians, particularly in the Methodist tradition, gather on New Year's Eve for what are called Watch Night services. During these sometimes three-hour-long services, hymns are sung and prayers offered in a rededication to God, as participants watch for the new year. John Wesley wrote and adapted services for Watch Night celebrations. The most famous of Wesley's Watch Night resources is certainly what is known as the Wesley Covenant Prayer, an adaptation of a pietist prayer (see The United Methodist Book of Worship, 1992, ISBN 0687035724).
First Night
As a family-friendly, non-alcoholic celebration of the coming New Year, many communities have started sponsoring "First Night" celebrations. Typical events might include musical entertainment, arcades, and carnival attractions.
