In the article “Happy New Year In Different Cultures Of The World”, you will learn how the new year in different cultures is organized and celebrated with their special traditions, norms, and values they have according to their religious, social, and cultural beliefs.
Most people follow the Gregorian calendar which was updated by Julius Ceaser when he added the first two months to sync with the solar calendar which evolved from a lunar calendar and the seasons of the year. This solar calendar has 365 days in a year or 12 months to be precise.
According to the Georgian calendar, right after Christmas, January 1st is the new year 2024 and all the years before and after but depending on the new year in different cultures around the world it varies from place to place and who you speak with about the new year, thus new year reaches far beyond January 1st.
Happy New Year In Different Cultures Of The World
Chinese New Year
Chinese new year is also known as the Lunar New Year and the spring festival is celebrated between January 21st and February 20th. Millions of people around the world celebrate the 15-day festival with friends and family members where they share meals, wear traditional clothes, and fireworks are seen all around to make the new year more exciting and joyous.
The Chinese Lunar Year brings everyone together and parties and celebrations are seen everywhere. People participate in colorful parades and decorate their homes, neighborhoods, and streets with lanterns and beautiful New Year decorations and ornaments that are traditional in Chinese culture.
But the most important thing in all these traditions especially the Asian traditions is the idea that New Year’s represents a turning point, it is considered to be an extremely auspicious day that brings good fortune to you and your family and all the people around and related to you.
Chinese New Year as always is the representation and characteristics of an animal from the 12 chosen ones that have their own significance according to the Chinese lunar calendar and consequently on the person whose date of birth falls on the year of that animal accordingly to the calendar.
New Year Jewish-Rosh Hashanah
The New Year Jewish for the Jewish people is another big celebration known as Rosh Hashanah which means the head of the year in Hebrew also known as the Jewish New Year. It is celebrated on the 7th month of the Jewish lunisolar calendar between September and October.
New Year Jewish is a solemn and religious occasion that occurs in the fall. It is a two-day celebration that begins the most important time of the Jewish religious year which is the 10 days of repentance of self-reflection of measuring yourself against your religion and the community.
The Jewish New Year is one example of the Happy New Year in different cultures of the world, it is a celebration where all the people gather with their families and friends to party around and eat meals and enjoy together.
Even though it is not the kind of lights fireworks and drinks that we associate with New Year’s Day in the secular society, it brings the community together.
Nowruz
Nowruz although is not a New Year celebration, but falls under the “Happy New Year In Different Cultures Of The World” as it is celebrated for the new and getting rid of the old.
Nowruz is celebrated by over 300 million people worldwide which is considered the Persian New Year. It is a 3000-year-old Iranian celebration that marks the beginning of spring and is observed on either March 20th or 21st which is the first day of the year on the Iranian solar calendar.
It is the first day of spring celebration, people visit the homes of their families, relatives, and friends, and honor their elders. There is a tradition called huff table displaying in which at least seven items that include some form of sprout or grass for rebirth and renewal, dried fruit for love, apples for beauty and health, garlic for medicine and self-care, a sweet pudding for wealth and fertility, vinegar for patience and wisdom, and a Persian spice for more sunrises.
Islamic new year
Muslims around the world celebrate the Islamic New Year which is observed on a different day each year according to the cycle of the lunar calendar. It falls on the first day of the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar called Muharram, which is the Arabic new year.
It is a time to commemorate Prophet Mohammad’s (P.B.U.H) migration from Mecca to Medina with his followers in 622 AD to escape the hardships and the dominant culture at that time that didn’t allow them to spread the true message of Islam.
For most Muslims New Year is a minor holiday and a minor day, it is celebrated and it is acknowledged but it doesn’t have the same kind of cultural weight that it has in China or among Sikhs, or in the Jewish community.
Vaisakhi
The last culture of the New Year event that falls under the topic “Happy New Year In Different Cultures Around The World” is Vaisakhi, also known as Baisakhi is the harvest festival and is the Sikh and Punjabi new year. It is observed by Sikhs and some Hindus on either the 13th or the 14th of April each year based on the Nanakshahi calendar which is a solar calendar used by the Sikhs.
Baisakhi isn’t only a celebration of a new year but it also commemorates the establishment of Khalsa which is a process used to describe Sikhs who have been baptized and are considered as pure, clean, and free.
Buddhist New Year In Thailand
In Thailand people celebrate the Buddhist New Year with a three-day water fight, this initially started off as people pouring water over Buddha statues but people in Thailand aren’t just soaking each other for fun even though there’s lots of that happening at the Songkran festival. Splashing water is meant to wash away bad luck from the previous year and in most of these countries, the new year is considered a public holiday.
It is a time for people to be with their friends and families but that’s not always a privilege that people who are living away from their native countries can partake in. In immigrant communities and in long-established communities, these traditions are very important, they are markers both of religious identity but also of ethnic identity moreover they become really strong touchstones for the community.
There are different ways the new year is celebrated depending on the religious and cultural beliefs one follows, but what they all have in common is the idea of congregating and celebrating with friends, families, and the global community at large to celebrate a new beginning and a fresh start if the need arises for better or for worse.
Hope you learned about the celebrations of the Happy New Year in different cultures around the world. Let us know in the comments section below if we have missed anything of importance, and do have a wonderful and very Happy New Year 2024 with your friends and family.