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| | Both Presidents Bush started the New Year by hunting quail. The two Bushes beat the bushes in search of quail together with James Baker in Southern Texas. President G.W. Bush spent New Year's eve with his family and with his friends at the Crawford, Texas, ranch he calls home.
New Year events quite exotically take place in Australia. Absence of ice, Christmas trees, deers and other habitual attributes of festival does not grieve the people of continent. Santa Claus celebrates start of New Year by his arrival at specially decorated beaches of Sydney by observing the traditions of Old World. Compulsorily he will have white beard and red color cap with tail at the end. Swimming suit covers the sun burned body of gift distributor. Huge crowds of people visit different public places in open areas, where mass fire works (salute) take place. One of the most beautiful place is Victoria Park, which is located in center of the capital, where Australians celebrate New Year events with international jokes and appetite smells of European-Asian-American dishes. Specialty of Australian New Year event is its practical absence after midnight. Australians get up at 5-6 AM in spite of holidays or festivals and go to bed not later than 10 PM. That’s why New Year night itself is absent. At 00.10 everybody is in bed..
Different pyro based items are used while celebrating the New Year: Christmas crackers, sparklers, and other multi launch fire works, rockets, Roman lights, huge and small detonating cartridges and etc.
Usage of huge quantity of pyro based items, including by minors, creates potentially fire hazardous situations, that’s why New Year is considered as highly tense period of the Year for fire fighting and rescue groups. However, because of the attention of mass media on fire hazardous problem with pyro based items, this problem is demonstrated in magnified view, and also suppression of (mainly in unintended cases) statistics of other reasons of fire (particularly smoking and improper handling with electrical equipment). Data on such statistics are stably high during entire year and significantly higher than the data on fire due to improper usage of pyro based items.
Time of New Year festivals – this is the time of beauty and time of good fairy, which comes to each home at the end of each year along with winter chills. It brings us hope for better, gives many gifts and insists on hoping better. During this time, we start feel heroes of the fairy.
Kid in each of us wakes up, we start perceive things happening in our surroundings with eyes of kids, though we are not kids long time ago.
Now, this is one of our lovely festivals. Do you know, that earlier, instead of Christmas tree, other trees were decorated. They were cherries, which were specially grown in tubs.
Tradition of decorating the Christmas tree started 2000 years ago. Earlier people were thinking, that all the trees were made up to good forces and kind souls lived there. By hanging the refreshments and gifts people tried to impress these souls. But evergreen Christmas tree had its own specialty among other trees.
It was holy center, "peace tree", which symbolized the life itself and new rebirth from shadow and darkness.
Earlier, instead of dolls, fruits from different trees were used for decorating the trees, for example:
* apples – symbol of fertility
* nuts – inconceivability of godlike fields
* eggs – symbol of developing life, harmony and complete prosperity.
Old New Year — New Year as per Julian’s calendar (“Old style”). In XX and XXI centuries comes night between 13th and 14th of January as per Gregorian calendar (“New style”). After switching over to New style, Old New Year also is being celebrated as per traditions unofficially in some countries.
In Russia, there is a tradition to celebrate Old New Year not only for preserving the tradition and also as Russian Orthodox Church continues celebrating all the religious festivals as per Julian’s calendar (“Old style”). In this case modern New Year falls on Christmas post – Orthodox 40 days post in honor of Christmas.
Tradition to celebrate Old New year started after 1918 year, when new counting had been introduced in Russia.
After disintegration of USSR, except in Russia, the Old New Year is celebrated also in Byelorussia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (approximately 40% of population), and also by Slovenians and people of ex-Soviet Republics in other near and far countries. However in last few years, there is a tendency in decrease of people celebrating the Old New Year.
Ex Yugoslavia
Tradition to celebrate Old New Year is still alive in Serbia and Chernogoria, as Serbian orthodox church continues to live as per Julian’s calendar. Serbian people call this festival as Serbian New Year. Old New Year is also celebrated in Macedonia.
Switzerland
Old New Year as per Julian’s calendar (old day of Saint Silvester, in German Alter Silvester) is celebrated also in some German speaking areas of Switzerland. As in Russia, these are the traces of non-acceptance of transition to Gregorian’s calendar (this transition in protestant Switzerland took place in XVII—XVIII centuries). |
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