Parenting] New Year's Day Talk

Countries around the world celebrate the New Year on slightly different dates due to their different longitude positions and different times of the day. For example, Tonga, an island nation in Oceania, is located on the western side of the international sunrise line, and it is the first place in the world to start a new day, and also the first country to celebrate the New Year. On the other hand, Western Samoa, located on the east side of the line, is the last place in the world to start a new day. We are the 12th country in the world to celebrate New Year's Day in Western dollars.

In Taiwan, New Year's Day is celebrated in a variety of ways, with New Year's cards being one of the main forms. In recent years, under Western influence, there has been a trend of celebrating the New Year in Taiwan, with county and municipal governments organizing New Year's Eve parties, fireworks, and other events to welcome the new year with friends and family in a festive atmosphere. On New Year's Day, there is also a flag-raising event, where everyone wakes up early to watch the dawn and participate in the flag-raising ceremony.

United States of America: Together in the Old and New Moments

In the United States, January 1 is a federal holiday. Since the United States is a predominantly immigrant country, New Year's customs come from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

In the United States, New Year's Day is not as celebrated as Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it is one of the major holidays celebrated every year. On New Year's Eve, churches all over the U.S. hold solemn services where people gather in churches, on the street, or in plazas to sing, pray, offer blessings, confess, or make wishes in anticipation of a moment of renewal. At exactly 12:00 midnight, church bells ring out across the country and bands play the famous nostalgic song "Safe Journey" to the sound of music that stirs up people to embrace each other and even kiss people they don't even know. In this way, people welcome the new year together with sadness of farewell and hope for a new life.

China: "New Year's Day" Originally referred to as Chinese New Year.

In China, the Western New Year is also known as "New Year's Day". Yuan" means "beginning" and "Dan" means "morning", and "New Year's Day" is the first morning of the year. In 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen led the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. In order to "follow the Xia Zheng, so as to conform to the farming season, and the Western Calendar, so as to facilitate statistics", the Republic of China decided to use the Western Calendar in the first year of the Republic of China (the actual year of use was 1912 AD), and stipulated that January 1st of the Western Calendar would be the "New Year's Day". "New Year's Day" is not a traditional Chinese festival, and although some of the traditional ways of celebrating the day are used, such as setting off firecrackers and paying homage to ancestors, it does not seem to occupy a very important place in people's minds.

Japan: Ring the bell 108 times

In Japan, December 29th to January 3rd is a national vacation. The Japanese call December 31st "Daikichi", or New Year's Eve. The night of New Year's Eve is called "New Year's Eve" in Japanese. At midnight, temples are filled with incense and bells are rung, often 108 times. The Japanese believe that each stroke of the bell removes one kind of trouble, and ringing it 108 times means that all troubles are removed. After the bell is rung, people flock to shrines and temples to burn incense and pray to the Buddha, and to read fortunes. The Japanese call New Year's Day "Shoga Day", and the 1st to 3rd days are called "Sanga Day". On the first day of the New Year, the younger generation goes to their parents to greet them and then to their friends and relatives. New Year's Day is also a festival of eating, and on the first day of the year, Japanese people have a hearty breakfast of carrots and soba noodles with sugar, and drink sake. For the next three days, they eat vegetarian food as a sign of piety and to pray for good luck in the coming year. Nowadays, most people in Japan have given up their New Year's vegetarianism and eat a meal of hollowed-out noodles on New Year's Eve to wish for good health and longevity in the New Year.

Korea: "Hair burning" to ward off evil spirits

January 1 on the Korean New Year's calendar is a legal day of rest. There is a big party in the evening, but the New Year is a very small festival compared to other festivals.
In the early morning of the New Year, friends meet to exchange blessings. In the evening, it is customary to burn the hair that has fallen out from the previous year's combing in a combing box, and then burn it outside the door on New Year's evening to ward off evil spirits and plague. On New Year's Day, Koreans hold rituals and prayers for the whole family, in addition to reunions and dinners.

UK: Stirring the fireplace fire

British people in the late night of New Year's Eve, often with cakes and wine to go out to visit, according to the British custom, after midnight, towards the house into the first foot of the person, the new year's luck. If the first guest is a happy, happy and wealthy person, the host will have good luck throughout the year. On New Year's Eve, when a guest is at a friend's house, before the conversation, he or she should first stir up the fire in the fireplace to wish the host "good luck at the door".

Some British people have a custom of "keeping the New Year's Eve", where the family sits around until the church bells ring, and then goes to pray as a group. People sing New Year's Eve songs and dance around the fire until dawn. On New Year's Eve, every family must have wine in their bottles and meat in their cupboards, because if they don't have any left, they will be poor in the coming year. In addition, the New Year's custom of "fetching water from a well" is also popular in Britain, where people fight to be the first to fetch water, believing that the first person to fetch water is a happy person, and that the water they fetch is auspicious water.