New Years ~ holiday history commemoratives gifts supplies and resources at Farmers Market Online

London 2008 New Year Fireworks - BBC One

U2 New Years Day

New Year's Day is the first day of a new year, celebrated by all cultures that measure time by annual calendars.

January 1

The first day of the year on the Gregorian calendar, used by most countries, is the first day of January.

January 14

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, which still follows the Julian calendar, the New Year falls on January 14. In countries where Eastern Orthodoxy predominates, both Gregorian and Julian New Year holidays may be celebrated, with January 1 celebrated as a civic holiday and January 14 celebrated as "Old New Year", a religious holiday. Eastern Orthodox churches of Georgia, Jerusalem, Russia, the Republic of Macedonia and Serbia still use the Julian Calendar.

Chinese New Year

Also known as the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year occurs on the new moon of the first lunar month, about four to eight weeks before spring. The date on the Gregorian Calendar can fall anytime between January 21 and February 21. Each year is symbolized by one of 12 animals and one of five elements, with the combination of animals and elements cycling every 60 years. It is the most important Chinese celebration of the year.

Change the Calendar

After more than 400 years, it may be time to turn the page on the Gregorian calendar.

Using computer programs and mathematical formulas, astrophysicist Richard Conn Henry and economist Steve H. Hanke at The Johns Hopkins University have created a new calendar in which each new 12-month period is identical to the one which came before, and remains that way from one year to the next in perpetuity.

On the calendar they have developed, Christmas and New Years would occur on Sundays every year, as they were in 2011.

Continued Out There

New Year's Charm: Daruma Dolls

Daruma dolls are traditional New Year's charms popular throughout Japan, highly regarded as a talisman of good luck.

Made of porcelain, cold cast resin or papier-mache, the dolls are typically red and depict a bearded man (Dharma) with the eyes unpainted. Recipients of these dolls paint in one pupil while making a wish, and the other when it comes true.

Reputedly modeled after the 5th-century monk Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism, Daruma dolls were first made at the Shorinzan Darumaji temple in the mid-18th century as a figure to petition with one's wish.

Daruma Doll