Party time around the planet: A fractured look at New Years traditions

BY FRED TASKER
ftasker@MiamiHerald.com

Posted on Thu, Dec. 28, 2006

Eating black-eyed peas. Toasting with bubbly. Making resolutions we wont keep. Isnt there more than this to New Years Eve?

Sure there is. Heres a fractured look at some of the more, um, robust traditions here and abroad:

 Times Square: At 11:59 p.m. they drop the big crystal ball amidst revelry by a million or more people jammed into the square for hours, with lots of drinking and no apparent place to go to the bathroom. Did you ever wonder about that?

 Bayfront Park: Were different. Our ball -- a big orange -- falls up.

 Miami: Deceived, perhaps, by that up-falling orange, we conclude that the laws of gravity have been suspended. At midnight we fire guns up into the air. At 12:01 a.m. we head for the emergency room.

 South Africa: In the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow, its customary to throw refrigerators, beds and trash bins out of tall buildings. And to set off fireworks horizontally, aimed at the windows of neighboring buildings.

See, Miami? We aint so tough.

 Scotland: In a tradition called fireball swinging, locals fashion big balls out of chicken wire, tar, paper and other flammable materials, set them afire and walk through pedestrian-jammed streets swinging them on ropes. Miamis looking tamer all the time.

 Atlanta: They drop a peach. Wimps.

 America: We sing Auld Lang Syne, an arcane poem by Scotsman Robert Burns. Sure, you can handle the first verse. Now have three glasses of bubbly and try singing the third:

We twa hae paidld in the burn,

Frae morning sun till dine,

But seas between us braid hae roard,

Sin auld lang syne.

 In the Philippines, children jump up and down at midnight to make sure they will grow tall. Hours later, sensors warn of tsunami waves around the Pacific Rim.

 The World: Anyone born Jan. 1 is dubbed a New Year Baby. Among the more famous: Pope Alexander VI, Barry Goldwater, Betsy Ross, J. Edgar Hoover, Xavier Cugat, Joe MacDonald of Country Joe and the Fish and Kala Sosefina Mileniume Kauvaka.

 Tonga: What, you dont know Kala? She was the first child born in the new millennium. (To be fair, the deck was stacked since Tongas so close to the International Dateline.)

 Spain: They eat 12 grapes as the clock strikes midnight. Those Spaniards know how to party, dont they?

 In Turkey, traditional New Years Day feast food is turkey. This is not a pun in the Turkish language. If you see a Turk, try to explain it to him. (If he gets the joke, shake his hand and say, ``Ataturk.)

 Greece: They make St. Basils Cake, hiding a gold coin inside. Whoever finds the coin has good luck in the coming year. Or breaks a tooth and sues.

 The American South: We eat Hoppin John -- black-eyed peas and ham hocks -- for luck. If we were even luckier, wed have caviar and champagne.

 The World: From Coney Island to Russia, thousands of portly, nearly naked, probably intoxicated men cut holes in the ice and jump into the frigid water. Of all the things the whole world could unite on . . .

 Iran: At Norouz, the Zoroastrian New Year, which actually falls on March 21 in 07, its customary to serve pastry with Ajleh Moshkel Gosh, which translates as problem-solving nuts. (Fill in your own punch line here. See if you can relate it to the nuclear standoff.)

 France: New Years Eve is celebrated with a feast called Le Riveillon de Saint-Sylvestre, with champagne and foie gras, and a fancy ball called une soirie dansante. Face it. Well never be as cool as the French.

 Ecuador: They see out the Aqo Viejo by using wood, newspapers and rags to make human figures -- often of disliked politicians -- stuffing them with fireworks and setting them aflame. We call that an election campaign.

 China: Tradition has it that a scary, man-eating beast, Nyan, used to skulk down from the mountains, infiltrate houses and do its worst to the inhabitants. Then they discovered the monster was sensitive to noise. Which explains the firecrackers, banging drums and such that make San Franciscos Chinese New Year Parade audible from space. (The next lunar new year, ushering in the Year of the Boar, falls on Feb. 18.)

 Cambodia: In Chab Kon Kleng, a traditional New Year game, one player, the hen, tries to protect his chicks while another player, the crow, tries to catch them. In America, the game is called ``lobbyists and special prosecutors.

 Japan: Tradition is to pay off all debts and go into the new year with a clean slate. This is how you can tell theyre not Americans.

 Ireland: In a tradition called First Footing, if the first person to set foot in your door in the new year is a dark-haired man, youre in for good luck. But watch out if its someone whose eyebrows meet above his or her nose. This would seem to be good advice year-round.

 In Scotland, they have First Footing, too, but there, bad luck will follow if your first visitor is female, stingy, flat-footed, barefooted, a minister, doctor, gravedigger or thief or carrying a knife. Probably best to stay inside and watch curling on the telly.

 Korea: Tradition on Seolnal, the lunar new year, is to eat sliced rice cakes in soup; unexciting, but more appealing than the spring holiday of Hansik, when the menu calls for cold mugwort dumplings.

 Venezuela: Some believe wearing yellow underwear on New Years Day brings good luck. In America this is called going to college.

Sources: Wikipedia and other websites, some rock-solid, others possibly fanciful.