NEW YEAR'S DAY

The ancient Roman calendar used March 1 as New Year's Day. Later, the ancient Romans used January 1 as the beginning of the new year. In the Middle Ages, most European countries used March 25, the Christian holiday called the Day of Ascension, as the beginning of the new year. Until 1600, most Western countries have been using the system of the revised calendar, which is called the Gregorian calendar.

Calendar that has so far used it to use again as the January 1 New Year's Day. England and its colonies in the United States into using the dating system in 1752. Most people commemorate the new year on the date specified by their religion. Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is celebrated in September or early October. Hindus celebrate on certain dates. Muslims use a calendar system that consists of 354 days each year. Therefore, their new year falls on different dates vary in the Gregorian calendar every year.

HISTORY AND HOW TO celebrate the past

Most people in the past year a new start on the day of harvest. They do habits to leave the past and purify themselves for the new year. Ancient Persians presents gifts for New Year's eggs, as symbols of productivity. The ancient Romans gave each other gifts holy tree branch cuts. Later, they gave each other nuts or gold coins with the image layer Janus, the god of doors and all the beginning. Month of January received a two-faced god of this (one face facing forward and one facing backwards). Romans dedicated the gift to the emperor. The emperors gradually require gifts like that. Celtic priests to cut mistletoe branch, which is considered sacred, to the people they are. Celtic people take a lot of new habits of the Romans, who occupied the British Isles in the year 43 AD.

In the year 457 AD the Christian church banned this practice, the new year with another habit which he considered a pagan practice. In the year 1200 the British leaders to follow the Roman custom which obliges them to give people a new year gift. The husband in the UK gave money to their wives to buy a simple brooch (pin). This custom disappeared in the 1800s, but the term pin money, which means less pocket money, still in use. Many of the people of the colony in New England, America, which celebrated the new year by firing guns into the air and shouted, while others follow the celebration at the church or open party.

MODERN FESTIVALS

Although the new year is also a Christian holy day, the new year has long been a secular tradition which makes it as a national public holiday for all Americans. In the United States, mostly done the night before the celebration of the new year, on December 31, where the people go to parties or watch television programs from Times Square in the heart of New York, where many people gather. At midnight the bells rang, sirens sounded, fireworks exploded and people menerikkan "Happy New Year" and sang Auld Lang Syne.

On January 1, Americans visiting relatives and friends or watching television: Flower Parade Tournament of Roses before the American football competition held in the Rose Bowl California; or the Orange Bowl in Florida; Cotton Bowl in Texas; or Sugar Bowl in Louisiana.