Fun Facts about New Year’s!
- January 1 has been recognized as New Year’s Day since 1752 when England and the American colonies of England adopted the date.
- The central Pacific island of Kiribati, also called Christmas Island, rings in the New Year first. American Samoa is one of the last places to celebrate.
- 2007 was the last time the days of the week match the same dates as 2018.
- The first New Year’s Eve rooftop celebration atop One Times Square took place in 1904 and was actually a celebration by The New York Times to inaugurate their new headquarters in Times Square.
- The first ball dropping celebration in Times Square was held on December 31, 1907. The original ball weighed 700 pounds, was just 5 feet in diameter and was decorated with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs.
- The current ball, unveiled in 2008, weighs 11,875 pounds and is 12 feet in diameter. Waterford Crystal designs a different pattern for the famous ball each year.
- The most popular New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and/or eat healthier.
- There are several foods thought to bring good luck if eaten on New Year’s Eve or Day. Spanish households eat 12 grapes in the first 12 seconds of the New Year, which represent each month of the year. Round or ring-shaped foods symbolize the year has come full circle. Pork and black-eyed peas are popular as the fattiness of pork symbolizes wealth and the peas are believed to bring good fortune because they swell when cooked.
- Eating lobster or chicken is considered bad luck. According to superstition, it’s because of a lobster’s ability to move backward and a chicken’s ability to scratch itself backwards, if you eat either on New Year’s, you won’t be able to move forward.
May 2018 be a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous year!
