From me to you.........with
Hugs, Smiles, And Kisses
Whatever you have planned to bring in the New Year , may it be SAFE, HAPPY and CHEERFUL !
  January
1, 1999 is a day of new beginnings.....A day to wake up with a smile and
look forward to what the New Year will hold in wonderful surprises. This
will be a year filled with new hopes and dreams....a year that holds so
much promise.
  |
| As
the New Year approaches, we often reflect on the the past year.....mistakes
we might have made...trials and tribulations we may have had to go through
.We also look back at the good times with friends and family. We recognize
the accomplishments we have achieved as well as the many friends we have
met along the way.
Meeting you my friend ,was a time during this year I will always remember and treasure. And, as 1998 says goodbye and a new year begins, exciting new adventures await. |
I will think of you my friend, as the clock strikes midnight and I will close my eyes with a wish in my heart, that all that you wish for is realized, and that in the year 1999, you will be blessed with happiness,laughter, good health and love. | I look forward to a year in which our friendship will grow even stronger.You are very special to me and you deserve all the happiness and love that this New Year will bring. |
"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard
for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets
under way. But the day celebrated as New Year's Day in
modern America was not always January 1.
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 was 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.
Other traditions of the season include the making of New Year's
resolutions. That tradition also dates back to the early Babylonians.
Popular modern resolutions might include the promise to lose weight
or quit smoking. The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was
to return borrowed farm equipment.
The Tournament of Roses Parade dates back to 1886.
In that year, members of the Valley Hunt Club
decorated their carriages with flowers. It celebrated
the ripening of the orange crop in California.
Although the Rose Bowl football game was first
played as a part of the Tournament of Roses in 1902,
it was replaced by Roman chariot races the following
year. In 1916, the football game returned as the
sports centerpiece of the festival.
The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year
was begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their
tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine,
Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket,
representing the annual rebirth of that god as the
spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as
a symbol of rebirth.
Although the early Christians denounced the
practice as pagan, the popularity of the baby as a
symbol of rebirth forced the Church to reevaluate
its position. The Church finally allowed its members
to celebrate the new year with a baby, which was to
symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.
The use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic
representation of the new year was brought to early America by the
Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.