Well, it looks like the New Year will soon be upon us once again as we celebrate with family and friends. We stay up to watch the ball drop on Times Square, sing “Auld Lang Syne” and shout “Happy New Year!” My husband and I always like to watch “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve” while drinking Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante.
It’s been quite an interesting year for us. We were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate my mother and father-in-laws’ 50th Wedding Anniversary by taking a 6-day cruise to Bermuda and my husband and I also bought our first home this past year! This coming year, we are planning to take a trip to Canada with my in-laws and I am so excited! I have never been to Canada before, but my mother-in-law tells me the scenery is absolutely breath-taking!
I have always wondered; however, where our New Year’s traditions came from and how this holiday was celebrated years ago? The celebration of the New Year is amongst the oldest of all the holidays which we, as Americans, observe. It was first celebrated in Ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox or first day of Spring which we, as Wiccans, call Ostara.
The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its’ own particular mode of celebration, but it is pretty safe to say that our modern New Year’s Eve festivities pale in comparison. The Romans observed the New Year in late March, but their calendar was continually changed by various emperors, causing the calendar to soon become out of synchronization with the Sun. In order to set the calendar right, in 153 BC, the Roman senate declared January 1st to be the beginning of the New Year.
However we choose to celebrate the New Year, it will always be a time of rebirth, planting new crops, blossoming and a chance for us all to start anew!
From my family to yours, I wish each and everyone a safe and joyous New Year!
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