Happy New Year!

Holidays on the Net is delighted to invite you to our rockin’ New Year’s celebration! Join us as we sing Auld Lang Syne and set our New Year’s resolutions.

Come read up on the story of the New Year, including the fact that the holiday used to be celebrated on March 1st, not January 1st! (In fact, there are a number of cultures until today that do not celebrate New Year’s on the 1st of January!)

Get pumped for New Year’s Eve with our article on Times Square and an historical timeline of the famous ball drop. Discover culinary New Year’s traditions from around the world, from osechi-ryori in Japan to Black Eyed Peas.

Learn fun New Year’s facts in our Did You Know feature article, including: Did you know that New Year’s celebrations date back over 4,000 and that the original Babylonians used to party for eleven days straight?

And finally, share the New Year’s cheer by sending a free ecard to your family and friends! I look forward to welcoming you to our New Year’s party and to raising a glass to toast a happy, healthy and wealthy new year! Cheers!

Happy New Year!

Did You Know?
January 01, 2010

It’s New Years Day!!

Thank you for joining us as we counted down to New Years Day 2010!

Happy New Year,
Louie and the Holidays Elves

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New Years Day
The world’s most widely celebrated holiday, New Year’s Day marks the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. New Year’s Day is a national holiday in the United States and most other countries.

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Did You Know?
Facts, Figures &
Folklore about About
New Year’s Eve &
New Year’s Day
Dec 31 : New Years Eve
1 Day till New Years Day

Did you know that “Auld Lang Syne” was written in the 1700’s?

The song was written by Robert Burns in Scotland, as a song of remembrance and reflection. The traditional New Year’s song, played on New Year’s Eve at the strike of midnight, was published in 1796 after Burns’ death. “Auld Lang Syne” is Scottish for “old long ago”.

It’s the most commonly sung song for English-speakers on New Year’s Eve. Guy Lombardo, who popularized the piece with his band, first heard the song sung by Scottish immigrants. From 1929-1959 his band played every New Year’s at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, with the first radio broadcast in 1929. The first televised New Year’s celebration with Lombardo’s band was in 1954 and continued until 1976. Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve televised broadcast began on December 31, 1972 to bring in a “younger crowd”, but, kept Lombardo’s rendition of Auld Lang Syne to be the first song played in the new year. For many, not hearing it would make their New Year celebration seem “unofficial,” somehow.

The New Year is a time of friends and family, and parties and fun. A time of fireworks, counting down and rockin’ out with good ol’ Dick Clark (& that Seacrest guy). It’s a time for resolutions, realizations, and a brand new year.

Join us for a new Did You Know holiday fact each day as we countdown to the new year. New Years Eve will be celebrated Thursday December 31st. New Years Day is Friday January 01, 2010!

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New Years Eve (Dec 31) Happy New Year! The last night of the Gregorian calendar means it’s time to ring in the new year in style. Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? And here’s a hand, my trusty friend And gie’s a hand o’ thine We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet For auld lang syne Photo Credit via Flickr: Paul Mannix.

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Did You Know?
Facts, Figures &
Folklore about About
New Year’s Eve &
New Year’s Day
Dec 30 : 1 Day till New Years Eve
2 Days till New Years Day

Did you know that prior to 1904, New Year’s Eve was celebrated in New York with much less pomp and partying?

Several innovations transformed New York that year: the invention of neon lights, the opening of New York’s first subway line; and the first celebration of New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

The New York Times had just completed building the Times Tower at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42nd Street – dubbed the “Crossroads of the World”. On December 31, 1904, the new building was the focus of an all-day festival concluding in a fireworks display ignited from the base of the tower. At midnight the raucous sound of cheering from over 200,000 merry makers was the genesis of a new tradition.

Today, New Year’s Eve in Times Square is a phenomenon, with hundreds of thousands of people continuing to gather at the Time Tower, now known as One Times Square, waiting in the New York winter. Thanks to satellite technology, a global audience, estimated at over one billion people, watches this ceremony each year.

Did you know that the first use of a Time Square New Year’s Eve Ball was the result of New York city banning fireworks because they were too dangerous?

The owner of the New York Times arranged to have an illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball to be lowered from the tower flagpole (77 feet, 23 meters) precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907. In 1914, The New York Times outgrew Times Tower and relocated to West 43rd Street. By then, however, New Year’s Eve in Times Square had become part of the American tradition.

For 2010 Waterford Crystal has designed a new sparkling “Let There Be Courage” triangle. The crystals feature a unique interlocking ribbon pattern woven into the Celtic knot. The triangles, each about 3/8″ thick and 6.8 ounces in weight are custom made and built to exacting standards to withstand the stresses of high winds, precipitation and temperature fluctuation that exist over 400 feet above Times Square. 288 are being installed alongside crystal installed in previous years.*

The New Year is a time of friends and family, and parties and fun. A time of fireworks, counting down and rockin’ out with good ol’ Dick Clark (& that Seacrest guy). It’s a time for resolutions, realizations, and a brand new year.

Join us for a new Did You Know holiday fact each day as we countdown to the new year. New Years Eve will be celebrated Thursday December 31st. New Years Day is Friday January 01, 2010!

*Source & photo: Times Square Alliance

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures &
Folklore about About
New Year’s Eve &
New Year’s Day
Dec 29 : 2 Days till New Years Eve
3 Days till New Years Day

Did you know that many cultures prepare New Year’s foods that are believed to influence good fortune; or, avoid dishes that might cause misfortune?

In many Spanish-speaking countries, eating one grape at each stroke leading up to midnight (12 grapes for the next calendar year), is for good luck. Ollie Bollen – literally “oil balls” – are a traditional New Year’s confection in Holland. These puffed doughnuts are frequently filled with currants, raisins and/or diced apples.

In Japan New Year’s food is called osechi-ryori and is, traditionally, prepared before midnight on December 31 and enjoyed until January 3. There is meaning and symbolism for each food arranged in layers of lacquered boxes – jubako. Media noche (middle of the night) in the Philippines includes 12 round fruits (representing money) for each month of the New Year. Added to the spread on their New Year’s table, Filipinos believe an abundance of food that night is believed to ensure a prosperous new year.

There are, however, beliefs that exclude some foods as bad luck. These include lobsters, they move backwards and chickens, that scratch in reverse. Eating these on New Year’s day might cause a reversal of fortune.

Did you know that throughout the Southern United States, black-eyes are eaten every New Year’s Day?

As the story goes, black-eyed peas were used exclusively for cattle feed in the old South. During the battle of Vicksburg during the Civil War, the town was under siege for over 40 days. No supplies came in or out. Vicksburg was on the edge of starvation. The people had no choice but to eat those black-eyed peas, therefore starting a southern tradition. Today, black-eyes are eaten every New Year’s Day to bring good luck for the new year.

The New Year is a time of friends and family, and parties and fun. A time of fireworks, counting down and rockin’ out with good ol’ Dick Clark (& that Seacrest guy). It’s a time for resolutions, realizations, and a brand new year.

Join us for a new Did You Know holiday fact each day as we countdown to the new year. New Years Eve will be celebrated Thursday December 31st. New Years Day is Friday January 01, 2010!

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)