Added: 12/22/2005 |
New Years Eve Holidays Still a Favorite After 4000 YearsOne of the bigger questions regarding man's modern-day origins have to do with New Years Eve holidays! Think about it: if you ere going to celebrate the new year wouldn't it make sense to link this festival to something akin to "life"? For example springtime. Spring represents a season of re-birth, fertility, blossoming, and new babies. January the 1st on the other hand has no religious bearing of any kind. No astronomical or agricultural importance whatsoever.
The Babylonians - originators of New Years and New Years Eve holidays took part in a celebration that last almost 2 weeks. And no matter how much fun you can have during New Years Eve holidays in Times Square, it's nothing compared to the debauchery undertook by the Babylonians. Bless 'em all.
The Romans picked up where the Babylonians left off. They continued to recognize New Years and New Years eve holidays in late March of all times. The Romans were pretty inventive, but creating a calendar that served a purpose was not one of their strong points. Their calendars were continually being messed up by whatever emperor happened to be in power at the time. The only thing they got right was celebrating the New Year and News Years eve holidays. Like their buddies the Babylonians, the Romans were big on days-without-end orgies and drinking. Now wonder Rome burnt to the ground.
Leave it to Julius Caesar to create a calendar in his name: the "Julian Calendar" recognized January 1st as the beginning as the New Year. And it was pretty much widely excepted until the Church stepped in and condemned it. In fact, during the Middle Ages, the Church pretty much remained opposed to celebrating New Years altogether! New Years Eve holidays are actually a pretty recent phenomenon for Westerners, who have only celebrated the occasion for about 400 years now. We sure didn't know what we were missing out on that's for sure.
Well, fast forward a few millennium and we've got out own traditions to recognize New Years Eve holidays. We fall a bit short of the Roman's drinking and orgies (darn it) but Westerners do on the other hand create a New Year's resolution. And go figure, even that tradition dates back to the early Babylonians, which really does prove that there is no such thing as an original idea. Typical New Years resolutions might be to go to the gym, or lose weight or stop smoking.
These days traveling seems to be the next big thing. Going somewhere other you're your own home to celebrate New Years or the New Years Eve Holidays may include a cruise or a flight to a location with a hotter climate. New Year's Eve packages are easy to come by. "Last-minute" travel offers are great and quite easy to come by when it comes to finding New Year's Eve packages. Hotels, travel agencies and airlines need to fill up every room and seat in order to make a profit, and thus offer terrific discounts on rooms, meals, tours and travel.
We've come a long way since the Babylonians and Romans when it comes to the celebration of New Years and New Years Eve Holidays. So many traditions have come to pass for each region, each country and each family that you would be hard-pressed not to have a good time come December 31st!
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