Celebrating the New Year
New Year celebrations are usually lubricated with champagne.
December 31
The Jewish New Year happens in September/October, Muslims mark the event in June/July. However, the world operates on the Gregorian calendar that says the new year starts on January 1. People in different cultures celebrate the date in sometimes strange ways.
The New Year Plunge
Is it something to do with the morning-after-the-night-before when a disturbing amount of festive liquid is still coursing through the body? On the other hand, the celebrants appear to be sober.
This, of course, is the lunacy that overcomes some people who feel compelled to plunge into icy cold northern hemisphere bodies of water to mark the start of a new year.
In the United States, this idiocy can be blamed on the Coney Island Polar Bear Club and a fitness guru named Bernarr Macfadden. In 1903, he gathered 50 or so people on the beach for some calisthenics followed by an invigorating dip into the Atlantic Ocean. Brrrr.
The inherent stupidity of the idea caught on and now every community with access to freezing cold water puts on a similar event.
People like Macfadden preach that immersion in frigid water is good for physical well-being, a claim that is not borne out by scientific inquiry. But, we live in an age in which a large portion of the population has been persuaded that science is bunkum.
The only upside to this nonsense is that participants often get pledges from friends to raise money for charities. But, the same goal could be met by a marathon session of cribbage in front of a log fire accompanied by Chardonnay.
No. Just no.
Hogmanay
No Spellcheck, it's not mahogany; it's Hogmanay and it's the major winter holiday celebration in Scotland. The word may be Greek, Gaelic, French, or Norse in origin, and nobody knows what it really means. To Scots it says party time and it's been an excuse for drinking and feasting for centuries.
Hogmanay (not hogwash) is more important than Christmas; in fact, Christmas was not even a holiday in Scotland until the late1950s.
It happens on December 31 and one of its traditions is first footing. The Edinburgh Evening News explains:
“The first person to cross the threshold of your house after midnight on Hogmanay (not Hogwarts) should be a dark-haired male. He should bring with him some coal, shortbread, salt, black bun, and some whisky.”
Fire also plays a part and this harkens back to pagan times when flames heralded the rebirth of the sun after the winter solstice. Fire was also believed to ward off evil spirits, i.e. non Scots.
Scotland.org tells us that “In Stonehaven, in North East Scotland, there is a long-standing tradition of making giant fireballs (weighing up to 10 kilos!) from rags doused in paraffin, swung on poles and paraded through the town's streets.”
And, What's this? Oh, for goodness sake, deranged people in fancy dress going for a swim in the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh on New Year's Day. They call this insanity the Loony Dook and started it in the 1980s.
For some inexplicable reason it is now part of the Hogmanay (not harmony) celebrations in most coastal communities in Scotland.
Heroes’ Happy Holiday Hangover Hassle
Chicagoans have access to the glacial waters of Lake Michigan, so perhaps a few misguided souls take a dip on New Year's Day, but brighter citizens take part in a car scavenger hunt. It's called the Heroes’ Happy Holiday Hangover Hassle.
At the sensible hour of noon, car owners with their rides from exotic to mundane, gather for an event that is a car rally with a difference. It began in 1955 under the auspices of a club of sports car owners. The origins are opaque but it's likely to have happened in a pub—these sort of things usually do start in such establishments.
Writing for Atlas Obscura, Sarah Laskow tells us that “As a general rule, the task of participants has been to drive around the city, on no predetermined route, to visit certain places and answer questions about them.”
Points are awarded for correct answers and some of the questions are whimsical, e.g. “Make up a question. Answer it.”
The goal of participants is to come in second, because the winner is awarded the privilege of organizing the following year's event.
Each year's rally is built around a theme such as Chicago's railway history, or its defunct breweries. In setting the questions, organizers “reserve the right to be evasive, obscure, and misleading.”
The event concludes at Hawkeyes Bar. Of course it does.
Wacky Danish Traditions
The Danish people are a very sensible lot. They believe in looking after the elderly and those with disabilities both mental and physical. The country leads the world in environmental science and wind power technology.
Denmark routinely tops lists of the best place to live, the happiest place, and other metrics that say this is a nation with an abundance of empathy.
But, something strange seems to grip Danes as one year turns into the next.
The traditional New Year's Eve dinner is boiled cod and kale. Is this some sort of weird penance for having behaved so well during the preceding year? It's said this meal is declining in popularity in favour of roast pork. Wonder why?
Then, it's time for Dinner for One. This is an 18-minute British comedy sketch that the Danish national broadcaster airs just before midnight.
This black and white movie from 1963 tells the story of a butler serving dinner to his employer and her four imaginary friends. As the meal progresses, the butler gets more and more sloshed as he swills down all the wine served to the non-existent diners.
It's an oldie but goodie and it doesn't matter to Danes how often they've watched it. Some, keep pace with the butler's intake of alcohol.
At midnight, it's time to jump into the New Year. Danes, those that are still in control of their faculties, climb onto a chair and, as the chimes ring out the new year, they jump to the ground.
Danes then go on a crockery-smashing spree on New Year's Day. Nobody seems to know why, but people throw cracked plates and seconds from porcelain manufacturers at the doors of friends and neighbours. Apparently, the bigger the pile of dinnerware shards on the doorstep the more likely good fortune will come your way.
When the frivolities are complete, the citizens of Denmark can go back to being kind, industrious, and happy.
Someone is going to have an excellent year.
Bonus Factoids
- The Brazilian goddess Yemoja controls the sea and likes flowers. So, to keep on her sweet side, people go to the beach on New Year's Eve and throw petals into the ocean. They can also go for a dip without fear of hypothermia.
- Good luck is assured in Spain if you can eat 12 grapes while a church clock strikes midnight on December 31. Tip, take the grapes in the form of wine.
- Princess Perchta also went by the beguiling name of the Belly Slitter. She appears in folk tales under different names throughout Europe. In the Netherlands around New Year's people eat Oliebollen, greasy spheres of dough. Here's the thing: when Perchta comes to fillet your tummy her sword slithers off your oily skin.
- In New York, tens of thousands of revellers gather in Times Square to experience the heart-stopping excitement of watching a large ball descend on a flagpole at midnight. Beats swimming in the East River.
- And, everybody lets off tons of fireworks.
Sources
- “The New Year’s Ritual of Plunging Into Frigid Waters Started with a Strongman at Coney Island.” Mark Roberts, Atlas Obscura, December 31, 2014.
- “Hogmanay: What Is Hogmanay? When Is it, Scottish History and Traditions and How to Pronounce Hogmanay.” Rachel Mackie, Edinburgh Evening News, December 23, 2022.
- “What Is Hogmanay? (Hog-Mah-Nay).” scotland.org, undated.
- “Chicago’s Greatest New Year’s Day Tradition Is a Car Rally Scavenger Hunt.” Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura, December 22, 2016.
- “These Are Some of the Most Interesting New Year’s Traditions Around the World.” Ashley Hubbard, wild-hearted.com, November 7, 2022.
- “New Year's Eve: Break Dishes Friends' Doorstep in Denmark.” worldkings.org, January 1, 2021.
- “Six Danish New Year Traditions.” Anna Clarke, University of Copenhagen, December 22, 2022.
- “New Year's Traditions From Around the World.” Victoria Doudera. Old Farmer's Almanac, November 11, 2024.
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2024 Rupert Taylor
