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5 Fun Facts & 5 Superstitions About New Year’s Day

1. New Year’s Day used to be celebrated on 25 March. Pope Gregory, from whose name we get the Gregorian calendar, implemented the changed to 1 January in the 1570s. It wasn’t universally adopted for many years. England and the colonies didn’t officially recognize 1 January as New Year’s Day until 1752.

2. The earliest recorded celebration of New Year’s Eve is thought be in Mesopotamia about 2000 B.C.

3. The first year that the ball was dropped in Times Square, New York City, was 1907.

4. The first Rose Parade in Pasadena, California happened in 1890. It is held on 2 January in any year that 1 January falls on a Sunday. The first televised Rose Parade happened 57 years later in 1947.

5. The traditional song Auld Lang Syne was written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788. It translates to Times Gone By.

6. The tradition of kissing at midnight is to ensure that there would be continued love and affection during the coming year.

7. The first person to enter your home after the stroke of midnight will influence the kind of year you’ll have – for good or for bad!

8. Having full cupboards ensures a year of prosperity for the family.

9. Making lots of noise at midnight is important, but not because you’re celebrating. Noise is thought to scare away evil spirits!

10. Babies born on 1 January will always have luck on their side. 🙂

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous 2020.