Fireworks For The New Year

All over the globe, in most major cities in the world, every December 31 at the strike of midnight, the once dark sky will transform into a colorful magnificient display of fireworks and all heads up with lots of ohhs and ahhs, and there are others who are just plain speechless as they observed the glittering display of fireworks right in front of them.

In the beginning, I learned/heard that fireworks was not performed every New Years Eve or at the strike of midnight just for the colorful display that it gives. its been told that fireworks creates noise, lots and lots of noise, that is why it is performed on New Years Eve/Day to drive the bad spirit away for the new year, and the whole year through. In the olden times, and in some countries at present, noise are still being performed on New Years Eve/Day in the hopes of driving away the evil spirits that are lurking around. Yes, these traditions for that purpose are still being observed at this time of year, specially in some countries. These countries who still observe these traditions, aside from using fireworks to produce noise, people also use drums, empty cans, and any other noise creating methods are performed for this purpose.

What about you? Do you watch fireworks show/displays every New Years Day? Like some traditions, do you also believe in noise created during New Year Eve/Day drives away bad spirits and misfortunes?

Happy NEW YEAR 2008, everyone! Wishin everyone the BEST YEAR yet!

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Family Traditions On New Year Day

I remember when I was a kid, most of my childhood years, I observed my mother wearing polka dots and circles wardobe during New Years Day. She also tried to make sure that me and my sister would be wearing polka dots dresses that day as well. She said that circles and polka dots symbolizes coins/finance and/or prosperity and financial success. So if we would wear polka dots on New Years Day, more money would be coming to our family for the whole year through. That was what my mother used to tell us, basing on what she also learned from her business-minded Chinese friends, people that they meet and mingle with on a daily basis on a business-sense level. My parents specially my mother, got influenced by them and learned some of their traditions, and she decided to practice some of them within our family. What could we loose, so we wore polka dots, hoping to bring more success in our family business. We also gathered all kinds of different circular fruits and put them all on the table during New Year Day. We also made sure that we prepare more foods that we could actually consumed that day so that we would never run short on food, and ended up being empty-handed on foods for the rest of the year.

My New Year Day memories as a child were surrounded by these traditions that our family practiced. Sometimes things that did not came out true to life as we hoped. Sometimes business did not come out great all the time, there were slow days, and there were great days. But we did manage to live with those traditions and observed them together as a family. Having those traditions helped us came together as a family, looking forward to them, traditions that surely bring us memories and great family times.

What about you, is there any family traditions that you and your family observe every New Years Day? Best wishes for you and your family on New Years Day, 2008!

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