O New Year's Eve or New Year is the New Year's Eve celebration from December 31st to January 1st of the following year. The word comes from the French and means “to wake up” or “to wake up”, in reference to the new stage of life that is beginning. January 1st was consolidated as a New Year only in the 16th century, with the emergence of the Gregorian calendar.
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New Year's Origin
The New Year's party is already a tradition in Brazil and in much of the world, assuming, in many cases, a Christian religious character. However, the origin of New Year's Eve is long before Christianity, being usually attributed to Mesopotamia, in 2000 a. Ç., referring to something like the “New Year's Festival”. Persians, Phoenicians, assyrians and greeks, since remote times, also held their New Year's Eve celebrations.
Why is New Year's Eve celebrated on January 1st in Brazil?
In Brazil, as in most countries with a Western tradition, New Year's Eve is celebrated on January 1st. O
January was created by romans, in the VIII century; a., and its name was an homage to Jano, Roman god of changes and transitions. However, the Romans still celebrated New Year's Eve in early spring, which took place in March.It is believed that the Romans would have started to celebrate the New Year from the 2nd century BC. Ç. This change was attributed to the conflict of the Romans with the Celtiberians, celtic peoples who resided on the Iberian Peninsula. This anticipation was related to bureaucratic and logistical issues involving the Roman army and was approved by the Senate in 153 BC. Ç.
Despite this official change, the Roman people continued with the tradition of celebrating the New Year in March. In 46 a. C., the old Roman calendar was replaced by the calendarJulian, named after Julio Cesar. The beginning of the year, in popular Roman tradition, still fell on March.
After the Christianization of Europe, a certain resistance was established, in some places, to commemorating the New Year in January because the name of the month was a tribute to a pagan god. Still, there were peoples, like the francs (under the Merovingian dynasty), who celebrated the New Year on January 1st. THE date was christened and became the Circumcision Day.
The Christianization of the date caused it to be adopted by some of the kingdoms that existed in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, although many changes have taken place in the question of what date would be adopted as the beginning of the year. The truth is that, during this period, there was an intense dispute, as many Christian kingdoms wanted the Annunciation Day, March 25, was considered as New Year's Day.
![In the 16th century, Pope Gregory XIII created the Gregorian calendar and made January 1st the first day of the year.[1]](/f/39e15e1d4db846a42be268f97b09973d.jpg)
January 1st was made New Year's Day official because of the calendar change in the 16th century. This change was made by the Pope Gregory XIII and determined a reform in the calendar, which came to be known as calendarGregorian. The old calendar, the Julian, was no longer used because it had a small inaccuracy of three days every 400 years.
With the reform of the Gregorian calendar, January 1st actually became the first day of the year. Over time, other countries adopted this new calendar, and the celebration of the New Year became January 1st. The English, for example, adhered to January 1st as the first day of the year only in the 18th century.
Brazil adopted this practice because of the influenceportuguese on here. In the 16th century, Portugal was a very Catholic country and, therefore, it obeyed the calendar reform made by the Pope, and, thus, the Gregorian calendar was adopted and January 1st was consolidated as the first day of the year for the Portuguese. This tradition was then brought to Brazil.
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New Year's Traditions
Currently, the most common during the New Year celebration is the fireworks show, in addition to the countless traditions that vary from one country to another. In Brazil, for example, there are several traditions inherited from African and Afro-Brazilian religions, such as the candomblé and, mainly, the umbanda.
O worship of Yemanjawith offerings to the sea it is practiced even by people who are not part of these religions, having a great receptivity with the Catholic public. Another habit inherited from these religions is the act of dress in white, a superstition for the promotion of peace and, at the origin, a habit to revere the colors of the orixá hopefully.
For many, New Year's Eve is a time to renew, plan or put old plans into practice. So, there are several sympathies and superstitions so that everything goes well, such as eating lentils, jumping seven waves (the number seven is also related to religions and beliefs), eating seven pomegranate seeds, among many other habits.
Of course, this is all symbolic, being, therefore, practices of cultural manifestation that reveals the identity relationships of people with society and space. The adoption of practices originating from African-based religions demonstrates well the syncretismreligious in Brazilian society, since such practices have spread throughout the country and are carried out by people of different religions.
Here in Brazil it is very common for people to call the New Year by the French term, New Year's Eve. This term was originally used to refer to parties that turned the night, but it came to refer to New Year's parties of the French nobility during the 17th century.
The term has a meaning related to “waking up”, “waking up”, being, therefore, the awakening or awakening of a new year. This French tradition gained other parts of the world from the 19th century onwards and reached places like Brazil. The term became popular in the country through the parties of the elites here.
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New Year in other parts of the world
Celebrating the New Year on January 1st is mainly a Western and Christian tradition. Although the world officially follows the Gregorian calendar, many different peoples have New Year celebrations taking place on dates other than January 1st. Let's look at some examples:
- Jews: the Jewish New Year is known as roshhashanah and is celebrated between late September and early October. New Year's Eve parties for Jews are more private occasions for family gatherings.
- Muslims: Muslim New Year is celebrated in the month of May. New Year's Eve for Muslims celebrates the Hegira, the going of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina.
- Chinese: Chinese New Year is determined by the Chinese calendar and takes place between January and February of the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese often have big celebrations during their New Year.
Image credits
[1] catwalker and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves and Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/datas-comemorativas/reveillon.htm
