Coming New Year (New Year's Eve)

On December 31st, the world celebrates the arrival of the New Year Without a doubt, this is the most favorite date of all people, when children and adults rejoice at the change of year Some celebrate this holiday at home surrounded by relatives, others spend the evening in a restaurant with friends, others rent a small house in the mountains and go sledding and skiing in the morning There are a lot of options for celebrating the upcoming New Year, it all depends solely on your taste In most countries that follow the Gregorian calendar, the New Year falls on the night of December 31st to January 1st This holiday was founded in 46 BC e in the Ancient Roman state At that time, the date was dedicated to the god Janus In the Russian Empire, until the 15th century, the New Year was celebrated on the first day of spring, and after that on September 1, according to the Julian calendar People began to celebrate the arrival of the New Year on January 1 only in 1700 by decree of Peter the Great On the eve of the holiday, in every apartment, restaurant, office and on the street you can admire the beauty of the New Year tree, with multi-colored balls, shiny garlands, and original toys But few people know why we decorate the house with spruce On the day Jesus entered the gates of Jerusalem, the joyful people greeted him with palm branches And now in hot countries a palm tree is used as a New Year's tree, but they do not grow here, so instead of palm branches, willow was used for a long time During the Middle Ages, the ancient pagan custom and the German tradition of going into the forest for a spruce tree on Christmas Eve and decorating the house with it took place After the adoption of Christianity by the Germans, the Christmas tree began to be used as a New Year's tree Each country celebrates the arrival of the New Year differently In Spain, during the chiming clock, it is customary to consume 12 grapes Residents of the sunny state are sure that if they manage to eat the required amount of berries, they can count on good luck in the coming year In the USA, at exactly 12 o'clock at night, people kiss Americans are also meticulous about their New Year's outfit, choosing bright things that symbolize a happy life The British decorate their homes with mistletoe branches In Cuba, New Year's Eve always turns out to be “wet”, since local residents fill all available containers with water in advance and throw it out of the window at midnight In Italy, unnecessary old things are thrown away before the holiday, so a lot of junk on the streets and entrances at this time is a common occurrence Colombians celebrate the occasion on a grand scale, setting off a huge number of fireworks and holding festivities And the artist on stilts symbolizes the passing year In Japan at this time the bells ring, striking 108 times Each blow represents one of human shortcomings Despite the fact that there are 6 vices in total, the Japanese are convinced that each of them has 18 shades