New Year - 01/01/2009
On January 1st of every year, everyone gets a fresh start. The start of a new calendar year, New Year's is a time for reflection on the year gone past as well as making resolutions for the upcoming year ahead. Represented by Father Time as the Old Year and the New Year's Baby as the New Year, these are just some of the symbols and personifications of time that has elapsed and the birth of better days ahead.
The day before January 1st, December 31st, is New Year's Eve, celebrated with all sorts of informal gatherings in people's homes or grand parties in public places. The biggest party of them all is celebrated and televised from Times Square in New York City with the dropping of the ball, counting down the last few seconds of the old year and the transition to the new. Other cities and even smaller towns celebrate by dropping a ball or holding some sort of a countdown, too.
With America as such a melting pot, different traditions are still held over from the old country and certain superstitions are adhered to in order to bring luck in the coming year. People eat grapes as a symbol of hope for wealth and prosperity in the new year ahead. Also, dishes are prepared with either pork or fish that swim upstream (such as salmon) in the hopes of picking up some of the "forward, full speed ahead!" capabilities of these animals.
