Edhat Staff
As we flip the calendar towards a new year, there is plenty to be thankful for. Family, friends, community, and living in California’s beautiful Central Coast.
Every year we provide a little bit of history on the festivities of today, to keep us informed of the past in hopes of being more mindful of the future. This year, we’re going a little rogue.
While thinking back on 2023, there was so much accomplished. After over a year of work and planning we launched our update website, we’ve seen an increase in our newsletter subscribers, our stories have reached shockingly high numbers of reads, and we’ve continued to provide our readers with fresh news, discussion, and entertainment every single day.
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Well heck, since we love to keep up traditions, here’s that history blurb.
The earliest recorded festivities date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, then the Romans until 46 B.C. where emperor Julius Caesar helped create the Julian calendar which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar of today.
Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties. In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 (the anniversary of Jesus’ birth) and March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation); Pope Gregory XIII re-established January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582,” according to history.com.
Did you also know that countries all around the world have their own unique New Year’s traditions? Brazil and Italy feature lentils in their new year cuisine, Austria focuses on suckling pigs, and Spain uses grapes. The Danish smash broken china on friends’ front doors, supposedly in a sign of affection. Do you think Solvang residents follows this tradition? Ed can only hope.
Happy New Year edhatters.
Happy New Year to Edhat and its’ wee powerful staff.
I was just reminded that today is 12-31-23 (OR simply stated: 123123!!!)
I always play the song “Numbers by Kraftwerk” on my radio shows during the Hollidays. “Uno..-Ni..-Tre..-Sheee…! Multi lingual electronic early cultural audio magic inclusion!!
Thanks for sharing this out, cool. I went on to read…
Such repeating pattern dates are extremely rare. Before 12/31/23, another one occurred on January 20, 2012, expressed as 01/20/12 in which 012 pattern repeats twice. Interestingly, these two dates are apart by 11 years, 11 months, and 11 days. ….
After 12/31/23, no other such pattern date will occur in this century.Both dates 01/20/12 and 12/31/23 will repeat again in the next century in years 2112 and 2123.
Watching The Clock!
On 12/31/23 did you make a wish @ 1:23 a.m. and 1:23 p.m.?
I missed out as I didn’t read this until after…bummer
Happy New Year