The history behind the tradition
BAGONG TAON for us Filipinos in America will always remind of of the deafening paputok of superlolo, machine guns, lucis, bawang, and the burning of old gulong that leaves black soot in our nostrils the next day. These are all believed to shoo away bad spirits and welcome the good energy of the New Year.
We think about the New Years’ Eve media noche dinner involving many rice cakes like palitaw,ginataang bilo bilo, and round fruits like grapes, apples, oranges, melons, pakwan, etc, –that are supposed to bring good luck. The rice cakes are “maalsa” which means our lives will be more prosperous in the coming year. Round fruits symbolize money and this pamahiin is practiced so more harvest and blessings will come to us in the year that lies ahead.
Many of us also list down some New Years’ resolutions, hoping to make a plan and do better in the new year. This list covers changes for the better in the health, finances, human relations department, etc., although some say this is a useless practice as most New Years’ resolutions hardly make it to February!
We also wear polka dotted clothes or something red for good luck. Bawal magwalis because that is bad luck as sweeping the floor drives away the graces of the new year.
With the exposure to global cultures, many kababayans have also adopted the tradition of going to New Year’s Eve balls, partying and counting down to midnight, complete with a champagne toast and ball/balloon drop, and singing the Auld Lang Syne.
But how did the New Year’s tradition as we know it now start? And how is the New Year’s tradition practiced in different countries? Let me share with you this report by the History Channel:
The history of New Year
The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley, which was cut in the spring) that involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days.
In addition to the new year, Atiku celebrated the mythical victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk over the evil sea goddess Tiamat and served an important political purpose: It was during this time that a new king was crowned or that the current ruler’s divine mandate was symbolically renewed.
Throughout antiquity, civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event. In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The first day of the Chinese new year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice.
January 1 becomes New Year’s Day
The early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each new year beginning at the vernal equinox; according to tradition, it was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. A later king, Numa Pompilius, is credited with adding the months of Januarius and Februarius.
Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem by consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time. He introduced the Julian calendar, which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today.
As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties.
In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replacedJanuary 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 (the anniversary of Jesus’ birth) and March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation); Pope Gregory XIII reestablishedJanuary 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582.
New Year’s traditions
In many countries, New Year’s celebrations begin on the evening ofDecember 31—New Year’s Eve—and continue into the early hours of January 1.Revelers often enjoy meals and snacks thought to bestow good luck for the coming year. In Spain and several other Spanish-speaking countries, people bolt down a dozen grapes-symbolizing their hopes for the months ahead-right before midnight.
In many parts of the world, traditional New Year’s dishes feature legumes, which are thought to resemble coins and herald future financial success; examples include lentils in Italy and black-eyed peas in the southern United States. Because pigs represent progress and prosperity in some cultures, pork appears on the New Year’s Eve table in Cuba, Austria, Hungary, Portugal and other countries.
Ring-shaped cakes and pastries, a sign that the year has come full circle, round out the feast in the Netherlands, Mexico, Greece and elsewhere. In Sweden and Norway, meanwhile, rice pudding with an almond hidden inside is served on New Year’s Eve; it is said that whoever finds the nut can expect 12 months of good fortune.
Other customs that are common worldwide include watching fireworks and singing songs to welcome the new year, including the ever-popular “Auld Lang Syne” in many English-speaking countries. The practice of making resolutions for the new year is thought to have first caught on among the ancient Babylonians, who made promises in order to earn the favor of the gods and start the year off on the right foot. (They would reportedly vow to pay off debts and return borrowed farm equipment.)
In the United States, the most iconic New Year’s tradition is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City’s Times Square at the stroke of midnight. Millions of people around the world watch the event, which has taken place almost every year since 1907.
Over time, the ball itself has ballooned from a 700-pound iron-and-wood orb to a brightly patterned sphere 12 feet in diameter and weighing in at nearly 12,000 pounds. Various towns and cities across America have developed their own versions of the Times Square ritual, organizing public drops of items ranging from pickles (Dillsburg, Pennsylvania) to possums (Tallapoosa, Georgia) at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
What is your family’s New Year’s tradition? HAPPY NEW YEAR! Make 2015 a great year!
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
