Let the fireworks begin!

The countdown draws to a near, the best and worst of the year are remembered while old and new resolutions come to mind. Welcome to 2003!

Chu Shen Tan! Bonne Annee! Sanah Jadidah! Felice Anno Nuevo! Manigong Bagong Taon! Happy New Year!

Here in the Philippines, the celebration of the New Year is mostly spent at home as families gather to have media noche. Of course at the stroke of midnight, everybody’s out in the streets and smile in awe at the fireworks displays that light up the first day of the brand-new year.

Special public events are also lined up in major cities throughout the archipelago with the highlight of a dazzling pyrotechnics show and then more whoopla!

A website about various holidays dedicated a special section in celebration of the New Year, featuring, among other things, New Year traditions around the world and greetings spoken in 37 different languages.

In whatever way it is spoken, the coming of another year symbolizes a fresh start for everybody around the globe, leaving the past behind and looking forward to a better, brighter future.

Celebrating the New Year at www.theholidayspot.com/newyear is more than just parties and fun. The Holiday Spot enlightens surfers on the history of this special day and the different customs and traditions of welcoming it.

Beginnings

The Holiday Spot says it was the Dutch, in mid-17th century, who "originated the modern American New Year celebration." It cites several instances where their "historical trails" are seen in the New Year revelry. The "Midnight Cacophony," theholidayspot.com says, is all about making deafening noise at the stroke of midnight to shoo away "evil spirits" said to gather as the living celebrates the New Year. Then there is the "Booze Bash" which The Holiday Spot says was once a "religious" practice.

"The original spirit has been a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the ordered cosmos was created by God," it explains. Another famous practice at the onset of a brand-new year is the making of New Year’s resolutions which theholidayspot.com says were used by people in the past to make certain that all their "borrowings" were cleared at the start of the New Year. Of course, the credit card was not existent then.

The present practice of making a New Year’s resolution is mostly on a personal basis to improve oneself. Then there are some who look at the material side of things like vowing to save a lot more than the previous year, buy a car, etc. There are others who focus their resolutions on vices, for instance, quitting (or at least lessening) smoking or drinking. The braver souls get through the year with their resolutions accomplished, while those who have forgotten all about them, well, there’s always the following year.

History

Aside from theholidayspot.com, another website, http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/7214/newyear.htm, also features the various special ways that the New Year is celebrated around the world. Featured here are ancient festivities commemorating the start of a brand-new year in ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, in Babylonia (which stood on what is now Iraq) and at the time of the Celts.

According to The Holiday Spot, in ancient times, there were a number of dates marked as the beginning of the new year in different parts of the world.

Theholidayspot.com says the Romans were the ones who first used Jan. 1 as the start of a brand-new year with some changes made in the calendar. The rest is history, as they say.

The famous Times Square

So enough of the history lesson as it’s time to have fun. www.timessquarebid.org/new_year features the revelry at the famous Times Square in New York City. Times Square 2003, timessquarebid says, promises to be another spectacular event with all the activities lined up on Dec. 31 till midnight strikes – the pyrotechnics, special effects and of course, all the confetti raining down on hordes of people gathering to celebrate the New Year.

For 98 years, and counting, Times Square has been the "center of worldwide attention" on New Year’s Eve. It all began in 1904 when the first rooftop celebration and fireworks display took place at Times Square. The much-celebrated New Year’s Eve Ball, a "symbol of the turn of the New Year," promises to bring out yet more of the oohs and ahhs at the strike of midnight.

A live video of the Times Square celebration can be seen all over the world, as well as festivities in other parts of the planet. Whether you’re out in the streets partying or in the comforts of your home, the coming of the New Year is sure to bring out a smile in all of us. A renewal of life nears and we are ready to welcome it.