{"id":59587,"date":"2015-12-31T00:09:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T08:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=59587"},"modified":"2015-12-31T00:09:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T08:09:58","slug":"auld-lang-syne-my-dear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/59587","title":{"rendered":"Auld Lang Syne, My Dear!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tNew Year’s Eve …\u00a0a time to ring in hopes for a prosperous and happy year to come. Last year, I shared a fun post <\/a>about the tradition of dropping things on New Year’s Eve (think Times Square, then add pickles). This year, I thought you might like to hear some fun facts about\u00a0last night\/first night festivities.<\/p>\n

Did you know …<\/p>\n

\u2022 Julius Caesar declared Jan. 1 an official holiday more than 2,000 years ago. Before that, the start of the New Year didn’t happen until the first new moon following the vernal equinox (in late March), and later, on March 1.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Americans alone consume 360 million glasses of champagne on New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n

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photo by Niels Noordhoek via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 And here’s an odd one … more cars are stolen on New Year’s Day than on any other holiday. (Does the previous night’s reveling make people forget to lock up? Or maybe the thieves merely need to get to the big games?)<\/p>\n

\u2022 In Japan, Buddhist temples across the country ring bells and gongs\u00a0108 times at midnight on New Year’s Eve\u00a0to symbolize the 108 human behaviors Buddhists consider weaknesses. They believe the bells repent for the\u00a0bad behavior of the year before.<\/p>\n

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photo at the Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery by Michelle via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 In many South American countries, revelers wear colored undergarments beneath their finery: red for love; yellow for prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In ancient Persia, people gave gifts of eggs on New Year\u2019s Day to symbolize new beginnings and\u00a0productiveness.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Many traditional New Year’s Day meals are thought to bring good luck and prosperity\u00a0throughout the year; auspicious ingredients include grapes, greens, fish, pork, legumes, and cakes. What are your lucky New Year’s dishes?<\/p>\n

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vintage new year’s wishes\u00a0via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Year’s Eve …\u00a0a time to ring in hopes for a prosperous and happy year to come. Last year, I shared a fun post about the tradition of dropping things on New Year’s Eve (think Times Square, then add pickles). … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gift_for_gab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}