Just after the International New Year is the Chinese New Year, also called, outside China, the lunar New Year.
Fireworks in Finland.
New Year's Eve starts the year with a late night and an early morning, just the sleep problem I am trying to cure, in myself and my son.
Answer
Next year I shall hold an Old Year's Eve party. I shall ask everybody to assemble early, 7.30, so that they are tired of the company by three or four hours later. Instead of watching fireworks from midnight until 1 am, I shall record them and see them on New Year's Day on the player.
Any fireworks will be watched on TV from other countries from 10.30 to 11 (if it takes an hour for you or guests to drive home, or half an hour to drive home plus half an hour to wind down and fall into bed, or 11 to 11.30 or 11.30 to midnight. YouTube has videos of fireworks in: Sydney, Australia; Taipei; Singapore; Hong Kong; Dubai; Paris, France.
In Scotland the first person through the door brings luck. In our celebration, the person to leave earliest bring luck for setting a good example. (They might be going on to another party. Sh! Don't mention that idea. Don't even think about it.)
Everybody will be asked to bring a list of ten things they have achieved or enjoyed in the year, and ten photos of happy moments. (Weddings, unions, holidays, business launches and successes, awards.
I shall start a file now called Achievement in 2017. Otherwise by the end of the year you forget. You can add birthdays, wedding anniversary photos, religious ceremonies, participating in contests (whether or not you won), meeting winners and famous people, entertaining elderly relatives, days out. If you are not always active, days out, reading a favourite book. It might be an idea to add a picture for treat from each month (allowing for a couple of months where nothing happens). That gives you ten pictures.
This year Christmas and Hanukah combined. I went to a New Year's Eve party wearing a Christmas hat like a Christmas cake. My hat has proved enormously popular in the UK, and over Xmas in the Czech Republic.
At the New Year's Eve party 2016, yesterday, last night, we were discussing the fact that this year Hanukah and Xmas overlapped. Twelve days of Xmas, so I was entitled to wear a Xmas hat after December 25th and 26th (Boxing Day in the UK, St Stephen's in Catholic and Orthodox Christian countries). I reflected that I should have added a Happy Hanukah message on the back of my hat. I shall do that for next year, regardless of the dates.
I consider myself 'a citizen of the world' as Gandhi described himself. (He had lived in South Africa and India. I have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore.)
Story
I mentioned in another post that in America when I was living their two decades ago I and my husband and our son, aged about seven years old were in Lake Tahoe. Having no family or friends to see on holiday, we had a meal at the only place which was not closed or fully booked, McDonalds, and went to bed early as our son started yawning and we were all in the same bedroom, a double and single bed suite in a motel. It was the best New Year's Eve ever because we started the year bright and early.
In the UK this decade for two or three years in succession we spent New Year's Eve at the invitation of a Hindu friend at a Unitarian Church New Year's Eve party. The ample food was a mix of traditional English Xmas leftovers, such as mince pies Xmas cake, potatoes and vegetables kept hot in tureens, plus mixed rice and Indian samosas, and other unexpected goodies. The meal was a potluck dinner. The evening's entertainment was provided by every guest (I think even those who could not see or stand were able to say at least a line of their favourite proverb or a rhyming couplet). Everybody performed a poem, motivational speech or recital of (out of copyright) music.
The people were mostly elderly. We and our friends left after eleven with most other people and the building was cleared and locked up, as was usual to avoid disturbing the neighbours of the building. We drove uphill to see the fireworks at midnight by the nearby housing association, but their funding ran out and the last year we went the fireworks had stopped so we arrived home by midnight just in time to see the UK fireworks on TV.
Tip
You can see me performing with my owl puppet at one event on YouTube.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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