New Years Celebrations... One More Year!
A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other!
New Years; Time For New Beginnings
12/31/2007 -New Years
Eve 2008 was wonderful... Dancing
with friends under the musical leadership of Tracy Wells! We all had an
excellent time and stayed stober the entire evening! Don't miss
Vicky's pictures from the dance!
1/2/2008 - The Rose Parade Float
Movie
The
celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first
observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000
BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March
23, although they themselves had no written calendar.
Late March actually is a logical choice for the beginning of a new year. It is the time of year that spring begins and new crops are planted. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.
The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.
The
Romans continued to observe the new year on March 25, but their calendar
was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon
became out of synchronization with the sun.
In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.
Although
in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year,
the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as
Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own
religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations,
and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the
Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.
During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years. January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years
Things To Think About
Mother Superior
called all the Nuns together one evening and said to them: "I must tell
you all something. We have a case of Gonorrhea in the convent.""Thank God," said an elderly Nun at the back. "I'm so sick of Chardonnay."
