New Year’s Traditions
by Laura Clipson
• Published 30/12/2021
New Year’s Day was first celebrated on January 1st in Rome 153 BC, but Britain didn’t start celebrating it until almost 2000 years later. Modern New Year’s celebrations often entail parties, fireworks, and hugs and kisses at midnight, but many of these celebrations have roots in much older traditions.
The ringing of church bells at midnight on New Year’s Eve has been a tradition for many years, and is to symbolise saying goodbye to the previous year and celebrating the arrival of the new year by “ringing it in”.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
- Alfred Tennyson, 1850
A big part of modern New Years celebrations is the ringing of church bells across the country, with the most well known being the chimes of Big Ben.
Fireworks are a big part of modern New Year celebrations.
New Year’s Resolutions have been made since the first recorded New Year celebrations 4000 years ago. New Year celebrations then took place in mid-March when crops were planted. Promises would be made to pay debts and return borrowed objects, with the gods bestowing favour on those who kept their word.
The idea of New Year Resolutions is to look back at your past mistakes and resolve to be better in the future. Popular modern resolutions are typically centred on self improvement - to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more or save money, but resolutions can be anything you want them to be.
Fire has been used to celebrate the New Year since celtic times, when it was believed to ward off evil spirits and entice the sun’s return. This has since evolved to the tradition of fireworks at midnight that we know today, though fire in the form of bonfires and fire displays are still popular at Scottish New Year celebrations.
Hogmanay is the Scottish word for the last day of the old year. Celebrations begin on 31st December but can go on for a couple of days into the new year. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay takes place every year, and is known as one of the world’s greatest New Year celebrations.
Singing Auld Lang Syne just before midnight on New Year’s Eve began as a Scottish tradition, but is now honoured by many across the world. Written by Robert Burns in 1788, Auld Lang Syne was based on an older Scottish folk song. It quickly became a tradition to sing it on New Year’s Eve across Scotland and then into the rest of the UK, and then spread into other areas of the world by people emigrating and taking the tradition with them.
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne
Follow funeral-notices.co.uk on social media to see when new articles are published:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
