• Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, Why Pagan Rituals were Adapted 7 years, 9 months ago

    The most effective method of spreading Christianity was to take a Pagan ritual and present it as their own.

    The Celebration of the Winter Solstice and the Rebirth of the Sun,  was easily altered to become the […]

  • Profile picture of bestwriter

    bestwriter replied to the topic Received payment a sixth time from LiteracyBase in the forum Group logo of About LiteracyBaseAbout LiteracyBase 7 years, 9 months ago

    I have been here since May but this month and the last have not been active here.

  • Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, The Pagan Aspects of Christmas (2) 7 years, 9 months ago

    In the first article in this series I covered the significance of the Winter Solstice and the practices of those who celebrated it.

    One must keep in mind that there were many Pagans; whether they were Romans or […]

  • Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, The Pagan Aspects of Christmas (1) 7 years, 9 months ago

    I’ve waited until mid January to publish the first of this series.

    Christianity has taken a great number of Pagan celebrations and incorporated them into Christian dogma so as not to confront but absorb.   […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, Being a Hypochondriac and making the boss pay 7 years, 9 months ago

    In every commercial enterprise you will find them.  These are people who are so overly concerned about their health they make everyone else sick.

    When they have health insurance, as many companies do, they d […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, We Ought have clipped the Google 7 years, 9 months ago

    It was in 2010 when the ‘rumour’ that Google was going into the online publishing field,  I had trepidation.

    In 2011, the Content Farm attacks and Panda were causing many sites to lose views, to be denied a pl […]

    • It’s hard to retaliate. What could the writing sites have done but try to adapt and survive?

      • Imagine every user/visitor of Hub Pages getting an advisory and being humbly requested to use Bing instead of Google… every writer whose hits have declined, every reader who feels manipulated would do it.

    • Like threathy fox said it’s hard to retaliate considering google’s capital. To put in an other way it’s like stealing candy from a baby (google’s perspective). And let’s be honest the world has almost turned in too a capital slavery.

  • Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, Global Warming? Strange Way of Showing it 7 years, 9 months ago

    As I write there is an ice storm raging in Europe. There are freezing temperatures causing power cuts, and fallen  trees and disrupted train service.  There are dangerous roads, and lashing winds, and snow f […]

  • Profile picture of bestwriter

    bestwriter replied to the topic Received payment a sixth time from LiteracyBase in the forum Group logo of About LiteracyBaseAbout LiteracyBase 7 years, 9 months ago

    @peachpurple I have not been posting here since many days. I do not see so many of our old memberes here, sadly

  • Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, How Did January Get to be the First Month? 7 years, 9 months ago

    With all due respect, what did January do to be first? It isn’t an Equinox, It doesn’t start or end a season. There’s nothing about it, not historically, religiously, naturally to put January at the front of the […]

  • Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, When Does the Year Really Begin? 7 years, 9 months ago

    Why does the year have to start in January?  In the Northern Hemisphere it is mid winter.  There’s nothing ‘new’ or being ‘renewed’  at that time of year.

    Why January?

    In a previous article , I made the case for […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, Happy New Year; When Does it Begin? 7 years, 9 months ago

    We’ve just celebrated ‘New Years’.   This is when the date changes.   When new calenders go on the market. Where the world goes from one year to another.

    In the West, and dripping all over the world, the Year c […]

    • To Begin the New Year in September has it’s Charm… but it is not the only moment in a year that, for want of a better term; ‘feels right’.

    • For New Year’s was not always January, and there are many ‘carry-overs’ from a previous era to confirm this.

    • Interestingly, Rosh HaShannah, the Jewish New Year, falls in September, on different days because of the use of the Lunar Calendar.

    • In fact, taking all things into consideration, January 1st is a relatively new time to celebrate New Years Day. Think of it.

    • We’ve just celebrated ‘New Years’. This is when the date changes

    • n the West, and dripping all over the world, the Year changes just after midnight on the 31st of December. But why January 1?

    • If you practice Law in ex-British Territories the New ‘Term’ begins in September. This is because the Legal Terms were set long before January 1st became ‘New Year’s Day’.

    • It is not only Schools and Law Courts, think of Shopping Malls. The year begin with the Fall Fashion which links into the Back to School/Back To Work shopping frenzy which begins at the end of August.

    • Why is January 1 is the first day of the New Year?
      Does it feel as if there was a change?
      Is there something ‘special’ about that date?

      • I can not figure out why January, myself. There is nothing ‘special’ about January. It isn’t the Winter Solstice, (or any other solstice)

    • Happy New Year’s Day

      New Year’s Day is a national holiday celebrated on January 1st, the first day of the New Year, following both the Gregorian and the Julian calendar. This New Years’ holiday is often marked by fireworks, parades, and reflection upon the last year while looking ahead to the future’s possibilities. Many people celebrate New Year’s in the company of loved ones, involving traditions meant to bring luck and success in the upcoming year. Many Cultures celebrate this happy day in their own unique way. Typically the customs and traditions of happy New Years involve celebrating with champagne and a variety of different foods. New Years marks a date of newly found happiness and a clean slate. For many celebrating New Years, it is their opportunity to learn from the prior year and make positive changes in their life.
      New Year’s Day Holiday History

      New Year’s is one of the oldest holidays still celebrated, but the exact date and nature of the festivities has changed over time. It originated thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon, celebrated as an eleven day festival on the first day of spring. During this time, many cultures used the sun and moon cycle to decide the “first” day of the year. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar that January 1st became the common day for the celebration. The content of the festivities has varied as well. While early celebrations were more paganistic in nature, celebrating Earth’s cycles, Christian tradition celebrates the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ on New Year’s Day. Roman Catholics also often celebrate Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a feast honoring Mary. However, in the twentieth century, the holiday grew into its own celebration and mostly separated from the common association with religion. It has become a holiday associated with nationality, relationships, and introspection rather than a religious celebration, although many people do still follow older traditions.
      New Year’s Day Resolutions and Traditions

      While celebration varies all over the world, common traditions include:

      Making resolutions or goals to improve one’s life.

      Common resolutions concern diet, exercise, bad habits, and other issues concerning personal wellness. A common view is to use the first day of the year as a clean slate to improve one’s life.

      A gathering of loved ones: Here you’ll typically find champagne, feasting, confetti, noise makers, and other methods of merriment Fireworks, parades, concerts.

      Famous parades include London’s New Year’s Day Parade and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Superstitions concerning food or visitors to bring luck.

      This especially includes circle-shaped foods, which symbolize cycles. The reasoning behind superstitions is that the first day of the year sets precedent for the following days. A common superstition specific to New Year’s Day concerns a household’s first visitor of the year—tradition states that if a tall, dark-haired stranger is the first to walk through your door, called the First Footer or Lucky Bird, you’ll have good luck all year. Also, if you want to subscribe to superstition, don’t let anything leave the house on New Year’s, except for people. Tradition say’s: don’t take out the trash and leave anything you want to take out of the house on New Year’s outside the night before. If you must remove something, make sure to replace it by bringing an item into the house. These policies of balance apply in other areas as well—avoiding paying bills, breaking anything, or shedding tears.
      Toasting

      Toasts typically concern gratefulness for the past year’s blessings, hope and luck or the future, and thanking guests for their New Year’s company. In coastal regions, running into a body of water or splashing water on one another, symbolizing the cleansing, “rebirth” theme associated with the holiday.

      However, many nations and cultures within them have their own characteristic way of celebrating:

      New Years Food

      American Citizens often celebrate with a party featuring toasting, drinking and fireworks late into the night before the New Year, where the gathering counts down the final seconds to January 1st. Some might even get a kiss at midnight. Many English speaking countries play “Auld Lang Syne,” a song celebrating the year’s happy moments. Americans often make resolutions and watch the Time Square Ball drop in New York City. Although much of this celebration occurs the night before, the merrymaking typically continues to New Year’s Day. Football is a common fixture on New Year’s Day in America, usually the day of the Rose Bowl. Some foods considered “lucky” to eat during the festivities include:

      Circular shaped foods
      Black-eyed peas
      Cabbage
      Pork

      New Years France

      The French typically celebrate New Year’s with a feast and a champagne toast, marking the first moments of New Year’s Day with kisses under the mistletoe, which most other cultures associate with Christmas celebrations. The French also consider the day’s weather as a forecast for the upcoming year’s harvest, taking into account aspects like wind direction to predict the fruitfulness of crops and fishing.

      New Years Phillipines

      In the Philippines, celebrations are very loud, believing that the noise will scare away evil beings. There is often a midnight feast featuring twelve different round fruits to symbolize good luck for the twelve months of the year. Other traditional foods include sticky rice and noodles, but not chicken or fish because these animals are food foragers, which can be seen as bad luck for the next year’s food supply.

      Greece

      Greeks celebrate New Year’s Day with card games and feasting. At midnight, the lights are turned off, followed by the Basil’s Pie, which contains a coin. Whoever gets the piece of pie containing the coin wins luck for the next year.

      New Years Soviet Union

      The Soviet Union’s New Year’s Day celebrations have been greatly affected by the Union’s history. As religion was suppressed and Christmas celebrations were banned, New Year’s, or Novi God celebrations often include Christmas traditions such as decorated trees, which were reconsidered as New Year Fir Trees. As the suppression left, these traditions stayed part of the New Year’s Day celebration. The holiday is also celebrated with feasts, champagne, and wishes.

      New Years Spain

      Spaniards celebrate New Year’s Day with the custom of eating twelve grapes, each eaten at a clock-stroke at midnight.

      Cold-water plunges

      In colder countries close to water, such as Canada, parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, it is customary to organize cold-water plunges. These plunges and races, sometimes called a Polar Bear Plunge, often raise money for charity or awareness for a cause.

      For thousands of years, New Year’s has been a festival of rebirth and reflection, allowing people all over the world to celebrate another great year.

      New Year’s Song

      The song, “Auld Lang Syne,” is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s, it was first published in 1796 after Burns’ death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scottish tune, “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.” The lyrics can be found here. Happy New Year’s Day

      New Year’s Day is a national holiday celebrated on January 1st, the first day of the New Year, following both the Gregorian and the Julian calendar. This New Years’ holiday is often marked by fireworks, parades, and reflection upon the last year while looking ahead to the future’s possibilities. Many people celebrate New Year’s in the company of loved ones, involving traditions meant to bring luck and success in the upcoming year. Many Cultures celebrate this happy day in their own unique way. Typically the customs and traditions of happy New Years involve celebrating with champagne and a variety of different foods. New Years marks a date of newly found happiness and a clean slate. For many celebrating New Years, it is their opportunity to learn from the prior year and make positive changes in their life.
      New Year’s Day Holiday History

      New Year’s is one of the oldest holidays still celebrated, but the exact date and nature of the festivities has changed over time. It originated thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon, celebrated as an eleven day festival on the first day of spring. During this time, many cultures used the sun and moon cycle to decide the “first” day of the year. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar that January 1st became the common day for the celebration. The content of the festivities has varied as well. While early celebrations were more paganistic in nature, celebrating Earth’s cycles, Christian tradition celebrates the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ on New Year’s Day. Roman Catholics also often celebrate Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a feast honoring Mary. However, in the twentieth century, the holiday grew into its own celebration and mostly separated from the common association with religion. It has become a holiday associated with nationality, relationships, and introspection rather than a religious celebration, although many people do still follow older traditions.
      New Year’s Day Resolutions and Traditions

      While celebration varies all over the world, common traditions include:

      Making resolutions or goals to improve one’s life.

      Common resolutions concern diet, exercise, bad habits, and other issues concerning personal wellness. A common view is to use the first day of the year as a clean slate to improve one’s life.

      A gathering of loved ones: Here you’ll typically find champagne, feasting, confetti, noise makers, and other methods of merriment Fireworks, parades, concerts.

      Famous parades include London’s New Year’s Day Parade and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Superstitions concerning food or visitors to bring luck.

      This especially includes circle-shaped foods, which symbolize cycles. The reasoning behind superstitions is that the first day of the year sets precedent for the following days. A common superstition specific to New Year’s Day concerns a household’s first visitor of the year—tradition states that if a tall, dark-haired stranger is the first to walk through your door, called the First Footer or Lucky Bird, you’ll have good luck all year. Also, if you want to subscribe to superstition, don’t let anything leave the house on New Year’s, except for people. Tradition say’s: don’t take out the trash and leave anything you want to take out of the house on New Year’s outside the night before. If you must remove something, make sure to replace it by bringing an item into the house. These policies of balance apply in other areas as well—avoiding paying bills, breaking anything, or shedding tears.
      Toasting

      Toasts typically concern gratefulness for the past year’s blessings, hope and luck or the future, and thanking guests for their New Year’s company. In coastal regions, running into a body of water or splashing water on one another, symbolizing the cleansing, “rebirth” theme associated with the holiday.

      However, many nations and cultures within them have their own characteristic way of celebrating:

      New Years Food

      American Citizens often celebrate with a party featuring toasting, drinking and fireworks late into the night before the New Year, where the gathering counts down the final seconds to January 1st. Some might even get a kiss at midnight. Many English speaking countries play “Auld Lang Syne,” a song celebrating the year’s happy moments. Americans often make resolutions and watch the Time Square Ball drop in New York City. Although much of this celebration occurs the night before, the merrymaking typically continues to New Year’s Day. Football is a common fixture on New Year’s Day in America, usually the day of the Rose Bowl. Some foods considered “lucky” to eat during the festivities include:

      Circular shaped foods
      Black-eyed peas
      Cabbage
      Pork

      New Years France

      The French typically celebrate New Year’s with a feast and a champagne toast, marking the first moments of New Year’s Day with kisses under the mistletoe, which most other cultures associate with Christmas celebrations. The French also consider the day’s weather as a forecast for the upcoming year’s harvest, taking into account aspects like wind direction to predict the fruitfulness of crops and fishing.

      New Years Phillipines

      In the Philippines, celebrations are very loud, believing that the noise will scare away evil beings. There is often a midnight feast featuring twelve different round fruits to symbolize good luck for the twelve months of the year. Other traditional foods include sticky rice and noodles, but not chicken or fish because these animals are food foragers, which can be seen as bad luck for the next year’s food supply.

      Greece

      Greeks celebrate New Year’s Day with card games and feasting. At midnight, the lights are turned off, followed by the Basil’s Pie, which contains a coin. Whoever gets the piece of pie containing the coin wins luck for the next year.

      New Years Soviet Union

      The Soviet Union’s New Year’s Day celebrations have been greatly affected by the Union’s history. As religion was suppressed and Christmas celebrations were banned, New Year’s, or Novi God celebrations often include Christmas traditions such as decorated trees, which were reconsidered as New Year Fir Trees. As the suppression left, these traditions stayed part of the New Year’s Day celebration. The holiday is also celebrated with feasts, champagne, and wishes.

      New Years Spain

      Spaniards celebrate New Year’s Day with the custom of eating twelve grapes, each eaten at a clock-stroke at midnight.

      Cold-water plunges

      In colder countries close to water, such as Canada, parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, it is customary to organize cold-water plunges. These plunges and races, sometimes called a Polar Bear Plunge, often raise money for charity or awareness for a cause.

      For thousands of years, New Year’s has been a festival of rebirth and reflection, allowing people all over the world to celebrate another great year.

      New Year’s Song

      The song, “Auld Lang Syne,” is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s, it was first published in 1796 after Burns’ death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scottish tune, “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.” The lyrics can be found here. Happy New Year’s Day

      New Year’s Day is a national holiday celebrated on January 1st, the first day of the New Year, following both the Gregorian and the Julian calendar. This New Years’ holiday is often marked by fireworks, parades, and reflection upon the last year while looking ahead to the future’s possibilities. Many people celebrate New Year’s in the company of loved ones, involving traditions meant to bring luck and success in the upcoming year. Many Cultures celebrate this happy day in their own unique way. Typically the customs and traditions of happy New Years involve celebrating with champagne and a variety of different foods. New Years marks a date of newly found happiness and a clean slate. For many celebrating New Years, it is their opportunity to learn from the prior year and make positive changes in their life.
      New Year’s Day Holiday History

      New Year’s is one of the oldest holidays still celebrated, but the exact date and nature of the festivities has changed over time. It originated thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon, celebrated as an eleven day festival on the first day of spring. During this time, many cultures used the sun and moon cycle to decide the “first” day of the year. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar that January 1st became the common day for the celebration. The content of the festivities has varied as well. While early celebrations were more paganistic in nature, celebrating Earth’s cycles, Christian tradition celebrates the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ on New Year’s Day. Roman Catholics also often celebrate Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a feast honoring Mary. However, in the twentieth century, the holiday grew into its own celebration and mostly separated from the common association with religion. It has become a holiday associated with nationality, relationships, and introspection rather than a religious celebration, although many people do still follow older traditions.
      New Year’s Day Resolutions and Traditions

      While celebration varies all over the world, common traditions include:

      Making resolutions or goals to improve one’s life.

      Common resolutions concern diet, exercise, bad habits, and other issues concerning personal wellness. A common view is to use the first day of the year as a clean slate to improve one’s life.

      A gathering of loved ones: Here you’ll typically find champagne, feasting, confetti, noise makers, and other methods of merriment Fireworks, parades, concerts.

      Famous parades include London’s New Year’s Day Parade and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Superstitions concerning food or visitors to bring luck.

      This especially includes circle-shaped foods, which symbolize cycles. The reasoning behind superstitions is that the first day of the year sets precedent for the following days. A common superstition specific to New Year’s Day concerns a household’s first visitor of the year—tradition states that if a tall, dark-haired stranger is the first to walk through your door, called the First Footer or Lucky Bird, you’ll have good luck all year. Also, if you want to subscribe to superstition, don’t let anything leave the house on New Year’s, except for people. Tradition say’s: don’t take out the trash and leave anything you want to take out of the house on New Year’s outside the night before. If you must remove something, make sure to replace it by bringing an item into the house. These policies of balance apply in other areas as well—avoiding paying bills, breaking anything, or shedding tears.
      Toasting

      Toasts typically concern gratefulness for the past year’s blessings, hope and luck or the future, and thanking guests for their New Year’s company. In coastal regions, running into a body of water or splashing water on one another, symbolizing the cleansing, “rebirth” theme associated with the holiday.

      However, many nations and cultures within them have their own characteristic way of celebrating:

      New Years Food

      American Citizens often celebrate with a party featuring toasting, drinking and fireworks late into the night before the New Year, where the gathering counts down the final seconds to January 1st. Some might even get a kiss at midnight. Many English speaking countries play “Auld Lang Syne,” a song celebrating the year’s happy moments. Americans often make resolutions and watch the Time Square Ball drop in New York City. Although much of this celebration occurs the night before, the merrymaking typically continues to New Year’s Day. Football is a common fixture on New Year’s Day in America, usually the day of the Rose Bowl. Some foods considered “lucky” to eat during the festivities include:

      Circular shaped foods
      Black-eyed peas
      Cabbage
      Pork

      New Years France

      The French typically celebrate New Year’s with a feast and a champagne toast, marking the first moments of New Year’s Day with kisses under the mistletoe, which most other cultures associate with Christmas celebrations. The French also consider the day’s weather as a forecast for the upcoming year’s harvest, taking into account aspects like wind direction to predict the fruitfulness of crops and fishing.

      New Years Phillipines

      In the Philippines, celebrations are very loud, believing that the noise will scare away evil beings. There is often a midnight feast featuring twelve different round fruits to symbolize good luck for the twelve months of the year. Other traditional foods include sticky rice and noodles, but not chicken or fish because these animals are food foragers, which can be seen as bad luck for the next year’s food supply.

      Greece

      Greeks celebrate New Year’s Day with card games and feasting. At midnight, the lights are turned off, followed by the Basil’s Pie, which contains a coin. Whoever gets the piece of pie containing the coin wins luck for the next year.

      New Years Soviet Union

      The Soviet Union’s New Year’s Day celebrations have been greatly affected by the Union’s history. As religion was suppressed and Christmas celebrations were banned, New Year’s, or Novi God celebrations often include Christmas traditions such as decorated trees, which were reconsidered as New Year Fir Trees. As the suppression left, these traditions stayed part of the New Year’s Day celebration. The holiday is also celebrated with feasts, champagne, and wishes.

      New Years Spain

      Spaniards celebrate New Year’s Day with the custom of eating twelve grapes, each eaten at a clock-stroke at midnight.

      Cold-water plunges

      In colder countries close to water, such as Canada, parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, it is customary to organize cold-water plunges. These plunges and races, sometimes called a Polar Bear Plunge, often raise money for charity or awareness for a cause.

      For thousands of years, New Year’s has been a festival of rebirth and reflection, allowing people all over the world to celebrate another great year.

      New Year’s Song

      The song, “Auld Lang Syne,” is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s, it was first published in 1796 after Burns’ death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scottish tune, “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.” The lyrics can be found here. Happy New Year’s Day

      New Year’s Day is a national holiday celebrated on January 1st, the first day of the New Year, following both the Gregorian and the Julian calendar. This New Years’ holiday is often marked by fireworks, parades, and reflection upon the last year while looking ahead to the future’s possibilities. Many people celebrate New Year’s in the company of loved ones, involving traditions meant to bring luck and success in the upcoming year. Many Cultures celebrate this happy day in their own unique way. Typically the customs and traditions of happy New Years involve celebrating with champagne and a variety of different foods. New Years marks a date of newly found happiness and a clean slate. For many celebrating New Years, it is their opportunity to learn from the prior year and make positive changes in their life.
      New Year’s Day Holiday History

      New Year’s is one of the oldest holidays still celebrated, but the exact date and nature of the festivities has changed over time. It originated thousands of years ago in ancient Babylon, celebrated as an eleven day festival on the first day of spring. During this time, many cultures used the sun and moon cycle to decide the “first” day of the year. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar that January 1st became the common day for the celebration. The content of the festivities has varied as well. While early celebrations were more paganistic in nature, celebrating Earth’s cycles, Christian tradition celebrates the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ on New Year’s Day. Roman Catholics also often celebrate Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a feast honoring Mary. However, in the twentieth century, the holiday grew into its own celebration and mostly separated from the common association with religion. It has become a holiday associated with nationality, relationships, and introspection rather than a religious celebration, although many people do still follow older traditions.
      New Year’s Day Resolutions and Traditions

      While celebration varies all over the world, common traditions include:

      Making resolutions or goals to improve one’s life.

      Common resolutions concern diet, exercise, bad habits, and other issues concerning personal wellness. A common view is to use the first day of the year as a clean slate to improve one’s life.

      A gathering of loved ones: Here you’ll typically find champagne, feasting, confetti, noise makers, and other methods of merriment Fireworks, parades, concerts.

      Famous parades include London’s New Year’s Day Parade and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Superstitions concerning food or visitors to bring luck.

      This especially includes circle-shaped foods, which symbolize cycles. The reasoning behind superstitions is that the first day of the year sets precedent for the following days. A common superstition specific to New Year’s Day concerns a household’s first visitor of the year—tradition states that if a tall, dark-haired stranger is the first to walk through your door, called the First Footer or Lucky Bird, you’ll have good luck all year. Also, if you want to subscribe to superstition, don’t let anything leave the house on New Year’s, except for people. Tradition say’s: don’t take out the trash and leave anything you want to take out of the house on New Year’s outside the night before. If you must remove something, make sure to replace it by bringing an item into the house. These policies of balance apply in other areas as well—avoiding paying bills, breaking anything, or shedding tears.
      Toasting

      Toasts typically concern gratefulness for the past year’s blessings, hope and luck or the future, and thanking guests for their New Year’s company. In coastal regions, running into a body of water or splashing water on one another, symbolizing the cleansing, “rebirth” theme associated with the holiday.

      However, many nations and cultures within them have their own characteristic way of celebrating:

      New Years Food

      American Citizens often celebrate with a party featuring toasting, drinking and fireworks late into the night before the New Year, where the gathering counts down the final seconds to January 1st. Some might even get a kiss at midnight. Many English speaking countries play “Auld Lang Syne,” a song celebrating the year’s happy moments. Americans often make resolutions and watch the Time Square Ball drop in New York City. Although much of this celebration occurs the night before, the merrymaking typically continues to New Year’s Day. Football is a common fixture on New Year’s Day in America, usually the day of the Rose Bowl. Some foods considered “lucky” to eat during the festivities include:

      Circular shaped foods
      Black-eyed peas
      Cabbage
      Pork

      New Years France

      The French typically celebrate New Year’s with a feast and a champagne toast, marking the first moments of New Year’s Day with kisses under the mistletoe, which most other cultures associate with Christmas celebrations. The French also consider the day’s weather as a forecast for the upcoming year’s harvest, taking into account aspects like wind direction to predict the fruitfulness of crops and fishing.

      New Years Phillipines

      In the Philippines, celebrations are very loud, believing that the noise will scare away evil beings. There is often a midnight feast featuring twelve different round fruits to symbolize good luck for the twelve months of the year. Other traditional foods include sticky rice and noodles, but not chicken or fish because these animals are food foragers, which can be seen as bad luck for the next year’s food supply.

      Greece

      Greeks celebrate New Year’s Day with card games and feasting. At midnight, the lights are turned off, followed by the Basil’s Pie, which contains a coin. Whoever gets the piece of pie containing the coin wins luck for the next year.

      New Years Soviet Union

      The Soviet Union’s New Year’s Day celebrations have been greatly affected by the Union’s history. As religion was suppressed and Christmas celebrations were banned, New Year’s, or Novi God celebrations often include Christmas traditions such as decorated trees, which were reconsidered as New Year Fir Trees. As the suppression left, these traditions stayed part of the New Year’s Day celebration. The holiday is also celebrated with feasts, champagne, and wishes.

      New Years Spain

      Spaniards celebrate New Year’s Day with the custom of eating twelve grapes, each eaten at a clock-stroke at midnight.

      Cold-water plunges

      In colder countries close to water, such as Canada, parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, it is customary to organize cold-water plunges. These plunges and races, sometimes called a Polar Bear Plunge, often raise money for charity or awareness for a cause.

      For thousands of years, New Year’s has been a festival of rebirth and reflection, allowing people all over the world to celebrate another great year.

      New Year’s Song

      The song, “Auld Lang Syne,” is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s, it was first published in 1796 after Burns’ death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scottish tune, “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long ago,” or simply, “the good old days.” The lyrics can be found here.

  • Profile picture of kaylar

    kaylar wrote a new post, A Few More Uses of Proxy Servers 7 years, 9 months ago

    In a previous item I mentioned a few reasons for he use of Proxy Servers.

    For those who have just ‘walked in’ a Proxy Server is a computer you connect to, which you use to connect to the other sites you wish to […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, A Little Bit More About Proxy Servers 7 years, 9 months ago

    In my previous item on Proxy Servers I mentioned their use.

    Now I’ll give some specifics.

    Firstly, you locate  Proxy Servers by a simple search.   You will find a nice long list.

    Some servers may go up and do […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, A Quick Word About Proxy Servers 7 years, 9 months ago

    It is not just in countries which bar certain sites why one would use a Proxy server.  And it is NOT because one is doing something naughty on the Internet why hiding their location is elected.

    Although it may […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, The Exorbitant Cost of Demotivation 7 years, 9 months ago

    Companies, schools, almost every group will pay a ‘Motivational’ speaker, because even the tiniest intellect knows that when people are motivated they perform better.

    Motivation isn’t just a higher salary or […]

    • PROBABLY IT IS, THAT MOTIVATION IS NEEDED BY EVERY INDIVIDUAL TO BEGIN THEIR DAILY ROUTINES, WORKS, AND ACTIVITIES. THOUGH SOMETIMES, THERE ARE THOSE THINGS, PEOPLE AND HAPPENINGS THAT MAKE US DEMOTIVATED. BUT WE SHOULD STAND FIRM AND THINK OF OUR GOALS OR THINK OF THE PEOPLE WHO IS THE REASON OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO REGAIN MOTIVATION.

      TO BE MOTIVATED:

      *STAY POSITIVE
      *STAY WITH GOOD PEOPLE
      *RELAX YOURSELF ONES AND A WHILE

      • As you can read from the examples, there are people who demotivate you. And once demotivated, it is unlikely one will ever ‘spring back’

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    kaylar wrote a new post, Over Lap; Boarding on Copy Cat 7 years, 9 months ago

    In a previous article on Vintage Television programmes I mentioned what I politely called an ‘Overlap’ to refrain from the active use of a term which would indicate that one writer/producer had access to a […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, a short reflection on The Golden Age of Television 7 years, 9 months ago

    In America, the ‘Golden Age’ existed from the 1950s to 1970s.   There was no cable or Internet to offer alternatives.  The commercial basis of the programmes, that is the advertisements which interrupted the f […]

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    kaylar wrote a new post, What Scandal? The Trump Sex Tape? 7 years, 9 months ago

    I do not think there is a person in the world who thinks that Donald Trump is any kind of moral icon.  I don’t think there is anyone with a fully operational brain who looks ‘up’ to Donald Trump.

    He is a crass, […]

    • I have to agree my this article. Trump has a very loud mouth. He is most definitely not a person I would look up too. Look.up to what? Someone that only cares bout their self, uh no not this way. I do not like Donald and I probably never will. Its just the way he carries himself and try to manage things, he would want to be around someone like him. And all he does is constantly judge and that’s in a wrong way of course if you know what I mean! I say no to Donald. He is just gonna make america worst by being in that office watch and see.

      • I totally agree with you. He is repulsive. And there’s no ‘bottom’ to him so that one could be shocked by a sex tape.

    • It’s a big shame in history to really have someone like trump be chosen to lead the world’s super power. How is life going to be for the American people, what will the rest of the world look like, how will other countries deal with th3 most arrogant president of all times? So many questions come to play when you think about this whole thing.
      It seems like a horror film for sure. I would ask why would someone waste their time and vote to bring in someone like this? Someone who clearly had no interest for the rest of the world and his people, the people that he’s going to rule. What were they thinking when they cast that vote surely. It just goes to show that there are people who are just as rotten. Am sorry Americans I don’t mean to be harsh on you but you made him president and now you will have to live with the embarassment of a loose mouth, filled with egoistic character kind of person, someone who has zero respect for women I sometimes wonder how he treats his wife in the house of he can treat and speak to women without respect. He feels he’s the most bright person in this world how he ended up with a woman who cannot even come up with a speech of her own and had to copy Michelle’s brilliant speech only God knows. He needs to do a lot of work on that part before he can start appearing in podiums to talk to people of high statute. Well that’s the reality of things right now. Americans will just have to find a way of dealing with alot of surprises in the coming year. Its good luck to you all.

      • He is going to be a huge humiliation to America, but one those of us in the 3rd and 4th World will relish. America can no longer hold it self as some beacon or superior. Never before in American history has a person so foul been placed in that office; and those who reached there undeserving were often the result of the death of the President, and only served out the term before being dispensed with.

    • The world must be careful of the trump presidency if not we are going to have a 3rd world war being started by trump using all the resources at his disposal as there seems to be more stupid people now in america than anywhere in the world. They are ready to do anything that their clown leader tells them. If his people who supported him did that on his lies the we are in trouble . He will woke one day and tell his people he dreamt the world is against america so they need to destroy the world and with one atomic bomb the world will become history including america itself. we are all under threat from trump america.

      • The dangers are real. People don’t get it. He’s made enemies and will make more. And it is getting clearer that he has no idea what he’s doing.

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    kaylar replied to the topic The People of LB in the forum Group logo of About LiteracyBaseAbout LiteracyBase 7 years, 9 months ago

    WE are very fortunate… I how we can maintain it…

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    kaylar wrote a new post, Hey! Maybe We’ll Get Another Chance at the World Cup!!! 7 years, 10 months ago

    In 1998 they played the Jamaican National Anthem at the World Cup in France.

    Yeah, I cried.  I stood there, looking at the television, singing along, tears rolling down my face, cause I never really believed we […]

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