Summit Staff Reporter
Everywhere around the world, although in different ways, different cultures celebrate the coming of the New Year. People will be making resolutions, practicing age-old traditions and enjoying what festivities there are to offer, as the mall speakers plays “Auld Lang Syne” over and over.
The tradition of New Year’s, at least how its known in Western culture, started with the early Roman empire, according to history.com. To align the days with the sun, as the 10-month calendar fell short, the Roman emperor Julius Caesar added 90 days to the calendar in 46 B.C.E., inventing the month of January after Janus the Roman god of beginnings.
New Year’s is not just an American tradition; it is a worldwide celebration. To celebrate the day, people in Spain will be eating grapes and making wishes, while in São Paulo, Brazil, people will wear red and yellow underwear to represent their hopes for a more prosperous love life or financial state respectively.
Here in the United States, people stay up until midnight to count down the celestial change that turns the previous year into the next, making resolutions we intend to keep in order to better our own lives- the most common ones being to lose weight, go to the gym or work harder.
Grossmont students also had some interesting views on New Year’s resolutions. Laura Woodward said she hasn’t had a New Year’s resolution since she was 16, when her goal was to get out of high school. Michael Lee Staples, on the other hand, was more focused on the future, saying he wanted to gain employment and procrastinate less as his New Year’s resolution.
In a nod to the famous Times Square ball drop in New York City, others in Dillsburg, Pa., will drop pickles. And in Brasstown, N.C., they will drop—or carefully lower—a live possum, while in Tallapoosa, Ga., it’s a taxidermied one. Every place has its own special way of celebrating the New Year.
In San Diego, people all over the city will be heading out on the town with their families and loved ones to experience all they can this holiday season. Balboa Park will be hosting a concert of organ music on New Year’s Eve to celebrate 100 years of the park’s existence. The centennial celebration kicks off with the December Nights, starting Dec. 15, and will end on New Year’s Eve with the concert held at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
Although it may fall on different days, each culture around the world celebrates the arrival of the New Year. Some may seem strange to the rest of us, and our traditions may seem odd to the rest of the world, but tradition is just a part of human spirit, and a way that we can bring joy to our lives.
