New Year Quiz
Not everyone's New Year falls on 1 January, and the date itself was once moved by decree.
A New Year quiz with answers about midnight customs around the world and the calendar behind them: what people eat, sing and carry for luck, and how the first day of January came to open the year.
Did you know?
- The first inhabited places to see each new year are islands in the Pacific nation of Kiribati. In 1995 the country shifted the date line so that all of its islands would share the same calendar day, which also allowed it to greet the year 2000 before anyone else.
- In Italy a dish of lentils is eaten just after midnight. The small round pulses are thought to look like coins, and the more a person eats, the more prosperous the year is supposed to be. They are usually served with a rich pork sausage.
- On the beaches of Brazil, people dressed in white wade into the sea at midnight and jump over seven waves, making a wish with each one. Flowers are also set afloat on the water. In Rio de Janeiro the celebration draws around two million people.
Why the year begins when it does
Marking the start of a new year is one of the oldest human celebrations. In ancient Mesopotamia, some four thousand years ago, the year began in spring, when crops were sown, and the festivities lasted eleven days. People are said to have made promises at that time to return borrowed tools and pay their debts, an early form of the New Year's resolution.
A date that moved
After the Roman reform the year opened on 1 January, but in medieval Europe many countries preferred other dates, such as 25 March or 25 December. The calendar introduced in 1582 and used across the world today restored the first of January. Different countries adopted it at different times; England and its colonies changed only in 1752, and Russia in 1918. For a time, people who kept the old date were mocked, one suggested origin of April Fools' Day.
Other new years
Much of the world also celebrates a new year on another date. The lunar new year observed in China and neighbouring countries falls in January or February. The Persian new year begins at the spring equinox in March. Thailand marks its traditional new year in April with water. Several religious calendars have their own first days, which move from year to year against the international calendar.
Luck for the months ahead
Almost every culture has a way of inviting good fortune. People eat lentils or round fruit because they resemble coins, wear a particular colour, open the doors at midnight to let the old year out, or make as much noise as possible. Fireworks have become the worldwide symbol of the night, and cities compete to stage the most spectacular display over a harbour or river. In many countries the first person to enter a home after midnight is also thought to set the tone for the year.