{"id":873,"date":"2012-01-01T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=873"},"modified":"2011-12-18T21:30:24","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T03:30:24","slug":"a-glad-new-year-to-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=873","title":{"rendered":"A Glad New Year to All"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Celebrating the New Year is an ancient custom dating back 4000 years to the Babylonians.\u00a0 It had something to do with a New Moon and Vernal Equinox and such, but exactly why they selected this time of year to celebrate is not really known.\u00a0 It seems to have no real agricultural significance and that\u2019s what most people planned their lives around in those days.\u00a0 Maybe it was a slow time of year and they just wanted to party!\u00a0 And party they did for eleven days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Various cultures continued these customs but since the calendars were always being tampered with it wasn\u2019t until Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 46 B.C. that January 1 became the New Year.\u00a0 Of course in order to get the whole thing synchronized, the previous year had to last 445 days, but that\u2019s a different story.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ushering in the New Year is celebrated in various ways by different cultures.\u00a0 Some Moslems wear new clothes.\u00a0 Some Asians release birds and turtles.\u00a0 Some Japanese eat rice cakes. Some Hindus leave shrines next to their beds.\u00a0 Then some countries such as Thailand, Nigeria, Uganda, and Cambodia temporarily depose their kings and set up temporary kings.\u00a0 In Scotland the old year is banished by making a dummy and parading it through town.\u00a0 Then it is buried, drowned or burned.\u00a0 The dummy is called (and I take great offense at this) the Auld Wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When America and Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, January 1st<\/sup> became our New Year\u2019s Day, too.\u00a0 Just like in ancient times some of us usher in the New Year by going to parties.\u00a0 Although they don\u2019t usually last eleven days like in the good old days.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of us older people like to usher in the New Year by watching television.\u00a0 We watch the Tournament of Roses parade, we watch football, and we watch a huge lighted ball fall to the ground in New York\u2019s Times Square as we count down \u201cten, nine, eight, seven, etc\u2026\u201d to the New Year.<\/p>\n

However you choose to celebrate all I can say is, \u201cMay your days be merry and bright.\u201d\u00a0 Whoops!\u00a0 That\u2019s a Christmas song.\u00a0 This poem from Martin Luther might be more appropriate\u2026<\/p>\n

Glory to God in highest heaven,
\nWho unto man His Son hath given;
\nWhile angels sing with tender mirth,
\nA glad new year to all the earth.<\/p>\n

God is in the highest heaven.\u00a0 His Son is His gift to us.\u00a0 The angels sing His glory and so should we!\u00a0 We are alive!\u00a0 We have so many reasons to celebrate.\u00a0 So I wish all of you a glad New Year!\u00a0 In the words of Martin Luther, \u201cA glad new year to ALL!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrating the New Year is an ancient custom dating back 4000 years to the Babylonians.\u00a0 It had something to do with a New Moon and Vernal Equinox and such, but exactly why they selected this time of year to celebrate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}