10 Interesting New Year Facts

 

1.Ethiopia has 13 months. Their current year is still 2006 and they celebrate New Years on September 11.

2.When religion was suppressed in Soviet Russia, Santa/St. Nick was replaced with Grandfather Frost, called the spirit of winter, who brought gifts on New Year’s and placed them under the “New Year tree”

3.In Korea and some other Asian countries, when you are born, you are considered one year old and everyone’s age increases one year on New Year’s. So if you were born on December 29th, on New Year’s day, you will be considered 2 years old.

4.In Thailand, they celebrate their traditional New Year’s Day with a state sponsored multiple day water fight.

5.On New Year’s Day in Akita, Japan there is a tradition where men dress as mountain demons, get drunk, and terrorize children for being lazy or disobeying their parents.

6.There are only 14 possible calendars. In 2014, you can re-use calendars from these years: 2003, 1997, 1986, 1975, 1969, 1958, 1947, 1941, 1930, and 1919

7.North Korea does not use the normal Gregorian calendar like most of the world. Instead it uses a different calendar system called the Juche calendar for numbering the years and year one of this calendar began on Kim Il Sung’s (The founder of North Korea) birthday.

8.1st January was accepted as New Year in 46 BC by Julius Caesar. England and the American colonies of England adopted the date long time later in 1752.

9.New Year gifts also date back to ancient times when the Persians used to gift eggs symbolizing productivity.

10.Speaking of traditions, we cannot miss out on the Estonian practice of eating 7, 9 or 12 meals on the eve of New Year. They believe that eating that many meals will give them the strength of that many people in the year that follows.