New Year's Day / King Cake Plus / Personal Inventory

 

 

I'm not about to blog about creating a new year's resolution! I'm more interested in the fun facts, rituals, and the types of celebrations that took place over the years and that take place today. However, I'd like to state a few things first. 

Don't create a set-up for failure! It's a fact that we break our resolutions within several months o'r less. If you  do write a resolution, don't beat yourself up if it goes to the way-side.

Your personal new year starts on your birthday! Each year on my birthday, I look back on my relationships with family and friends, accomplishments, job status, home improvements, and just about everything else. It's a personal inventory.

My personal inventory involves creating a list of the things I want to change and accomplish. Change is often necessary for an accomplishment, so change is in first place. I work on my needs and then my wants. Usually, if I fulfill my needs, my wants are attainable. I'm not saying I've been faithful to my formula all my life. I'm human. I err.

 

Your new year is your call. In 2020, my new year started some time after Labor Day. I was in need of change. My heart was yearning to return to the place I consider home, Columbus Ohio. That was a tall order from where I sat in Las Vegas NV, unemployed, my car on it's last leg, personal & family issues, and living with my domestic partner of eight years. I decided to meet my challenges head-on, and I recreated myself. I thank my higher power for helping me get through the things that were challenging.

 

I'm now here in Columbus OH, about to be gainfully employed, driving a new vehicle, moving into my new place in two weeks, blogging, and my Columbus-based meetup group now has 148 members. During 2021, I'll continue to work on my ever-existing list, going through each day to the best of my ability.

 

Now it's time for the fun facts about New Years Eve/Day.  I give credit to the site where I gathered my facts: https://www.history.com/news/new-years-history-festive-facts

 

The Facts First

• In 45 B.C., New Year's Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar takes effect. Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform.
• New Year's resolutions started 4000 years ago; credit is given to the ancient Babylonians. 
  

Food

• Louisianans and Mardis Gras fans know to start their year off with a sweet ringed king cake topped with colorful icing and sprinkles and baked with a trinket, such as a plastic baby, hidden inside. The lucky person who finds the trinket is named "king" or "queen" for the day.  What fun! This cake brings good luck! Buy your cake at a local bakery or search the net for a recipe.
  

• A major New Year's food tradition in the American South, Hoppin' John is a dish of pork-flavored field peas or black-eyed peas (symbolizing coins) and rice, frequently served with collards or other cooked greens (as they're the color of money) and cornbread (the color of gold).
  
• Cultural foods to celebrate your New Year:
• Greeks bake special Vassilopitta cake with a coin inside. The lucky finder is supposed to have good luck that year. 
• In Morocco, your NYE dinner will be lamb and red pepper hummus.
  
• The Dutch, for whom the circle is a symbol of success, eat donuts.
• In Italy, they eat lentils after the stroke of midnight. 
• In Spain, you eat 12 grapes at midnight. 
• In Brazil, they keep away from turkey and crab. That brings bad luck in the new year. 
  

Rituals

• Peruvian celebration: Potatoes are an important Peruvian food. A common New Year's tradition is to put three potatoes under a chair in a house. One potato is peeled, one is partially peeled, and one has all its skin. At midnight, with eyes closed, one potato is retrieved.
•  If you live in Venezuela, you might wear yellow underwear or and walk around the block with a suitcase to wish for travel in the new year
• In Kenya, the people celebrate NYE in much the same manner we do in the USA.
  Fireworks lighting up the skies, cheers and ululations, cars honking; this is how Kenyans usher in the New Year.
• In Chili, NYE masses are held in cemeteries so that the families of the deceased can include them in their NYE festivities. (Count me out!) 

USA - The best celebrations! 

Throughout the USA, we typically celebrate the stroke of midnight with fireworks, champagne toasts, and party hats. We countdown, kiss, sing Auld Lang Syne, and shout out "Happy New Year" in unison when the clock strikes 12.

Our traditional New Year's Day meat is usually pork. The side dishes, however, vary from region to region within our country. If you live in the south, for example, you might be enjoying greens and beans while northerners are roasting their pork in a bed of sauerkraut. The lucky New Year's pretzel or the King Cake may be on the menu too. 

Whatever your celebration includes, may it bring in a great year for all. 

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