M. Didar Hossain
Nowadays though English New Year festival is more popular throughout the world. Apart from this there are lots of New Year festivals across the globe. These alternative festivals have long history and become inevitable part of the local traditions throughout the nations of the world. Not all countries celebrate New Year at the same time, or in the same way. This is because people in different parts of the world use different calendars. Earlier people divided time into days, months, and years. Some calendars are based on the movement of the moon others are based on the position of the sun, while others are based on both the sun and the moon.
The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all festivals. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring). The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration. Later the Romans continued to observe the New Year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.
In 153 BC, Roman Senate declared January 1 to be the beginning of the New Year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar in 46 BC and established the Julian calendar. Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the New Year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as Paganism. The early church began having its own religious observances at the same time as with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year’s Day was no different but when as Christianity became more widespread. Still New Years is observed as the Feast of Christ’s circumcision by some denominations. During the middle Ages the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years. January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.
A short numbers of but well-reputed New Year festivals throughout the world are mentioned in following.
Bengali New Year:
Historically this day originated during the ruling period of Mughal emperor Akbar. Then agricultural taxes were collected according to the Hijri calendar. Due to the Hijri calendar was a completely lunar calendar. Consequently it does not coincide with the harvest. As a result farmers were hard-pressed to pay taxes out of season. In order to streamline tax collection process emperor ordered a reform of the calendar.. The new agricultural year was introduced on 10/11 March 1584, but was dated from Akbar’s ascension to the throne in 1556. The New Year subsequently became known as Bonggabdo or Bengali year.
Bengali Naboborsho is the first day of the Bengali calendar and celebrated in both Bangladesh, West Bengal, and in Bengali communities in Assam and Tripura. It connects all ethnic Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional differences. In Bangladesh it is celebrated on April 14 according to the official amended calendar designed by the Bangla Academy. In Bangladesh Pohela Boishakh is a national holiday and in West Bengal and Assam it is a public holiday and is publicly celebrated on April 15 every year.
Celebrations of Pohela Boishakh started from Akbar’s period. It was customary to clear up all dues on the last day of Chaitra. On the next day or the first day of the New Year landlords would entertain their tenants with sweets. On this occasion there used to be fairs and other festivities. In due course the occasion became part of domestic and social life, and turned into a day of merriment. The main event of the day was to open a halkhata or new book of accounts. They used to invite their customers to share sweets and renew their business relationship with them.
Traditionally during this period, the home is thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned. People bath early in the morning and dress in fine clothes. They spend much of the day visiting relatives, friends, and neighbours. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. This is one rural festival that has become enormously big in the cities, especially in Dhaka. Boishakhi fairs are arranged in many parts of the country.
Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year is called Rosh Hashanah. It is a holy time when people reflect on the things done wrong in the past with a promise to do better in the future. Religious services are held in synagogues. People played an instrument called Shofar, which is made from a ram’s horn. Children are given new clothes, and New Year loaves are baked and fruit is eaten to remind people of harvest time.
It is observed on the first day of Tishrei which is the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. This is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar. It is the New Year for people, animals, and legal contracts. Jews believe Rosh Hashanah represents either analogically or literally the creation of the World, or Universe. However, according to one view in the Talmud, that of R. Eleazar, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man, which entails that five days earlier, the 25 of Elul, was the first day of creation of the Universe.
The Mishnah, the core text of Judaism’s oral Torah, contains the first known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the “day of judgment.” In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah it states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded.
Tet:
Tet is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Vietnam. It is the Vietnamese New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the lunar calendar. It takes place around late January or early February until at least the third day. Many Vietnamese prepare for Tet by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tet. Visiting a person’s house on the first day of the New Year, ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year’s greetings, giving lucky money to children and elderly people, opening a shop etc practicing there.
It is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During Tet Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. They consider this day to be the first day of spring. So the festival is often called spring festival. Vietnamese people usually return to their families during Tet. Some return to worship at the family altar or visit the graves of their ancestors in their homeland. Although it is a national holiday among all Vietnamese, each region and religion has its own customs.
Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year is celebrated some time between January 17 and February 19. Whenever the new moon flourished then its star and it is called Yuan Tan. Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.
It is celebrated by Chinese people all over the world and street parades are an exciting part of their New Year. At the Festival of Lanterns, thousands of lanterns are used to light the way for the New Year. The Chinese people believe that there are evil spirits around at New Year. So they let off firecrackers to frighten the spirits away. Sometimes they seal their windows and doors with paper to keep the evil spirits out. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction.
Diwali
It is a significant 5-day festival in Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism . This is occurring between mid October and mid November. It is also popularly known as the Festival of Lights. Diwali is an official holiday in India, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore and Fiji.
It is traditional for believers of Diwali-celebrating faiths to light small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil within an individual. During Diwali many wear new clothes and share sweets, snacks with each other. Some Indian business communities start their financial year by opening new account books on the first day of Diwali for good luck the following year.
In Hinduism, Diwali marks the return of Lord Raama to his kingdom Ayodhya after defeating Ravana (the demon king) – the ruler of Lanka in the epic story of Ramayana. It also celebrates the slaying of the Demon king Narakasura by Lord Krishna. Both signify the victory of good over evil. In Jainism, Diwali marks the attainment of moksa by Mahavira in 527 BC. In Sikhism, Diwali commemorates the return of Guru Har Gobind Ji to Amritsar after freeing 52 other Hindu kings imprisoned in Fort Gwalior by Emperor Jahangir.
Hogmanay
This is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. Normally only the start of a celebration which lasts through the night until the morning of New Year’s Day1 January or 2 January. It is a public holiday for Scottish people.
There are many customs both national and local are associated with Hogmanay. The most widespread national custom is the practice of ‘first-footing’ which starts immediately after midnight. This involves being the first person to cross the entry of a friend or neighbor and often involves the giving of symbolic gifts such as salt, coal, shortbread, whisky, and black bun intended to bring different kinds of luck to the householder. Food and drink are then given to the guests as the gift. This may go on throughout the early hours of the morning and well into the next day. The first-foot is supposed to set the luck for the rest of the year
Islamic New Year
The Islamic New Year is a cultural event which Muslims observe on the first day of Muharram and the first month in the Islamic calendar. Many Muslims use the day to remember the significance of this month and the Hijra, or migration. Prophet Muhammad (MPH) made it to the city now known as Medina. Nowadays in many areas of Muslim population, people have begun exchanging cards and gifts on this day, though which are not commonly done in Islamic culture. For Shia Muslims, Muharram is a month of grief and sorrow because they mourn the death of Imam Hussain and his companions on the day of Ashura. Ras al-Sana is the Islamic celebration of the new Hijri year. The term is similarly used in the Arabic language to mark the start of the new Gregorian year.
Since the Islamic lunar calendar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year and Muharram migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start dates for Muharram are as follows though strictly speaking the month starts at sunset on previous day: Al-Hijra. Islamic New Year is based on the revolutions of the Moon. Thus, Al-Hijra is only 354 days long. Muslims celebrate Islamic New Year’s Day (Al-Hijra) in very different manner from other celebrations. Muslims gather in mosques and offer special prayers and listen to special readings from the Koran.
Japanese New Year
The Japanese celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1 each year on the Gregorian calendar. The date of the Japanese New Year was based on the Chinese lunar calendar and celebrated at the beginning of spring before 1873. In 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar. So the first day of January is the official New Year’s Day in modern Japan. It is considered by most Japanese to be one of the most important annual festivals and has been celebrated for centuries with its own unique customs.
Japanese people eat a special selection of dishes during the New Year celebration called typically shortened to osechi. This consists of boiled seaweed, fish cakes, mashed sweet potato with chestnut, simmered burdock root, and sweetened black soybeans. On this very day people presented gift, postcards and wishing letter to their closers and respective peoples. Poetry and games also places significant role. There are many shows created as the end-of-year, and beginning-of-year entertainment, and some being a special edition of the regular shows.
Korean New Year
Korean New Year, commonly known as Seollal and the first day of the lunar calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year’s Day. The Korean also celebrates solar New Year’s Day on January 1 each year following the Gregorian calendar. The Korean New Year holidays last three days and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year’s Day. Korean New Year generally falls on the day of the second new moon after winter, unless there is a very rare intercalary eleventh or twelfth month in the lead-up to the New Year. In such a case, the New Year falls on the day of the third new moon after the solstice.
Korean New Year is typically a family-oriented holiday. The three-day holiday is used by many to return to their home towns to visit their parents and other relatives where they perform the ancestral ritual known as charye. Many Koreans dress up in colorful clothes with varieties, soup with rice cakes is commonly served. Many Koreans greet the New Year by visiting East coast locations such as Gangneung and Donghae in Gangwon province, where they are most likely to see the first rays of the New Year’s sun.
Nowruz
Nowruz is celebrated and observed by Iranian people and the related cultural continent and has spread in many other parts of the world. Including of Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China, the Crimea and some ethnic groups in Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia etc celebrated this day. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed.
As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst the Zoroastrian ancestors of modern Iranians, at the same time is celebrated in the Indian sub-continent as the New Year. The moment the sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and Iranian families gather together to observe the rituals and made collaborative approach toward them. The UN’s General Assembly in 2010 recognized the International Day of Nowruz, describing it a spring festival of Persian origin which has been celebrated for over 3,000 years.
Songkran
The Songkran festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year’s Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation but it is now
fixed. If these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following. If they fall in the middle of the week, many Thai take off from the previous Friday until the following Monday. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand. Thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then.
The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. People roam the streets with containers of water or water guns or post themselves at the side of roads with a gardenside and drench each other and passersby. It was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends and neighbors. Besides the throwing of water, people celebrating Songkran may also go to Buddhist monastery to pray and give food to monks. They may also cleanse Buddha images from household shrines as well as Buddha images at monasteries by gently pouring water mixed with a Thai fragrance over them. It is believed that doing this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year.
Writter can be contacted by email: didarsw@yahoo.com