Happy New Year from Winn Technology Group. The new year is nearly upon us and people around the world will be celebrating and crafting resolutions. Here are ten things you may not know about celebrating the new year.
1. “The earliest known New Year celebrations were in Mesopotamia and date back to 2000 BC. The early Romans used March 1 as New Year's Day. Other cultures used the autumn equinox or the winter solstice to mark the new year.”
2. “Every year, New Year’s revelers consume some 360 million glasses of champagne and sparkling wine.”
3. “Black eyed peas, ham, and cabbage are considered good luck if you eat them on New Year’s Eve or Day because it is believed they will bring you money.”
4. “Baby New Year has been a symbol of the holiday since around 600 B.C., starting in ancient Greece when an infant was paraded around in a basket in celebration of Dionysus, the god of fertility (and wine). The baby represents a rebirth that occurs at the start of each new year.”
5. “Forty-five percent of Americans make New Year's resolutions. The top resolutions are: to lose weight, get organized, to spend less and save more, to stay fit and healthy, and to quit smoking. While nearly half of all Americans make resolutions, 25 percent of them give up on their resolutions by the second week of January.”
6. “Samoa and parts of Kiribati are the first places to welcome the New Year while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States, are among the last.”
7. “In Japan, Buddhist temples all over the country ring their bells 108 times at midnight to symbolize and get rid of the 108 types of human weakness.”
8. “Ethiopia has 13 months. Their current year is still 2006 and they celebrate New Years on September 11.”
9. “The first time that a ball descended as a symbol of time passing, it was not for the New Year, and it wasn't even in the U.S. It was in England in 1833 at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The ball dropped daily at 1 in the afternoon so that captains could set their chronometers, an instrument used to navigate, Times Square's website says.”
10. “18 million flowers are used to build The Rose Parade floats in Pasadena California; 47 thousand spectators, and 47 million virtual viewers watch this iconic event.”
