Remarkable New Year's Eve traditions
New Year's Dive at Scheveningen (Anastasiia-S / Shutterstock.com)
Just a little while and we greet it new Year. Many are happy that we can put this 2022 behind us, a year that was mainly dominated by the terrible war in the Ukraine, but also high energy bills, inflation and the aftermath of corona.
The old year must first be closed in style and we do that mainly by looking back. The turn of the year, New Year's Eve, is therefore one of traditions. Fireworks and deep fried doughnut balls have already been discussed on Thailandblog but there is more. Normally we have the New Year's Dive and New Year's fires in the Netherlands (but not right now). In Belgium it is customary for children to read a New Year's letter with New Year's wishes to the parents and to the baptismal godmother and godfather on 1 January.
In Thailand, the New Year is celebrated on April 13 with a large water festival. The tradition of Songkran originates from the ancient Brahmins of India. Houses are cleaned, the Buddha statues are washed and rituals are performed. During Songkran, parents and grandparents are thanked by sprinkling water on their children's hands. The water symbolizes happiness and renewal.
The Netherlands
The last days of the New Year are used to look back. Which Dutch celebrities have died, what sports achievements were there and what was striking in the news? On New Year's Eve there are many festivities with musical performances in the local nightlife venues. On TV there is traditionally the New Year's Eve conference, this year with Youp van het Hek. There is also tension among the owners of a New Year's Eve slot who are aiming for the top prize of 30 million euros. Who will start the new year as a multimillionaire? Last week the newspaper deliverers came to the door with 'best wishes for the new year' in the hope of getting a nice tip. Anyone who forgot to send a Christmas card quickly buys a card with 'Happy 2021' on it. Then the countdown to the new year. The champagne bottles are uncorked with a bang and we wish our loved ones and family a healthy and happy New Year with a big kiss. and normally put on the coat and go outside to watch the fireworks, but not right now.
On New Year's Day we sleep it off. The real 'diehards' normally go to Scheveningen for the New Year's Dive, but that has also been cancelled. Also on January 1, the traditional New Year's concert of the Vienna Philharmonic takes place in the Vienna Concert Hall. There is also a ski jumping competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen. Since January 1, 1923, a New Year's match has been held almost annually on New Year's Day between Royal HFC and Dutch ex-internationals.
The New Year's fires are reflected in the traditional Christmas tree burnings that are still organized in some places. Also this year no bonfire on the Noorderstrand of Scheveningen.
Belgium
In Belgium it is customary for children to read a New Year's letter with New Year's wishes to the parents and to the baptismal godmother and godfather on 1 January. Usually the godmother and godfather are close relatives and this event is a real family celebration, in the presence of grandparents and uncles and aunts. The New Year's greetings themselves are usually written in rhyme or verse form. After reading the New Year's letter, the children are given a toy or a useful gift. Getting gifts on New Year's Eve is just as important in Belgium as it is on Sinterklaas.
Worldwide
In many countries there are remarkable New Year traditions that go beyond eating donuts and setting off fireworks. In Russia, for example, people jump into an ice-cold river with a Christmas tree in their hands. The Greeks hang an onion on the door and in Denmark they break crockery at the neighbour's front door. In rural Romania, people dress up in bear costumes and dance from house to house to ward off evil. And in Turkey it brings good luck to sprinkle some salt in front of your front door around midnight. In Singapore, people write their wishes on inflatable white balls that they float on the Singapore River. In New Zealand, they use kitchen utensils to celebrate the beginning of the year. Pots and pans are beaten against each other to drive away the evil spirits. In Spain it is customary to eat a grape at midnight on every chime of the clock.
Do you remember striking New Year traditions from other countries? Then respond.
Rio de Janeiro: thousands of people dressed in white at the Copa Cabana. People bring flowers (almost like Loey Kratong in Thailand.
In the evening, dinner is served with friends or family and shortly before midnight, everyone dressed in white goes to the beach. The flowers are offered to a sea goddess. This is another slave-time custom of the people who came from Africa.
At midnight, a grand fireworks display is set up at sea that lasts up to half an hour.
I've experienced it once and it was one of the most beautiful experiences I've had the pleasure of experiencing during New Year's Eve. This despite the fact that Rio is considered a "dangerous" city.
The atmosphere was calm and relaxed and above all cozy. At half past one we went back to our apartment, others continued to party…
As a Belgian and Malinois, it might be nice to read how it was celebrated in my hometown.
Mechelen: From New Year's Eve to New Year's in days gone by.
By Erwin Horckmans – Mysterious Mechelen.
New Year's Eve.
It actually goes without saying that the people of Mechelen also celebrated New Year's Eve in the distant past. But how did they do that? Was it the same as now or did other, now forgotten, customs exist during that time span?
The celebrations on New Year's Eve and New Year date back to pre-Christian times. The Romans moved their New Year's Day from March 1 to January 1 in the year 153 BC. From New Year's Eve to New Year's Eve was all about the god Janus and that is why the first month of the year is called January to this day. To Janus the god of symbolic gates and transitions, such as the transition from old to new. Many of the customs of that time survived until recently or even today. The Romans used to exchange gifts on New Year's Day and they decorated their houses with evergreen boughs. The Germans, on the other hand, celebrated their midwinter feasts roughly between December 24 and January 6. The Germans then ate boar, kindled fires and feasted. They also went from door to door to wish them luck.
Silvester Day.
New Year's Eve, December 31, is also called Silvester Day after the date of death of Saint Silvester. In Mechelen it was then customary to 'honour' late risers. Whoever slept the longest was declared the 'sloth of the year'. These late risers were given nicknames such as; duvet, fairground doll, slacker or sleeping bag. Because 'Silvester' was the last day of the year, he was the patron of late risers, latecomers and sloths. Latecomers to school that day had to put on a big hat with the words: Sint Silvester.
In inns, restaurants and of course also at home, people ate like crazy. That has not changed to date. But people ate something different back then. In Mechelen, for example, people mainly ate mussels, pickled heads, rabbit or hare on New Year's Eve. Often a whole pig's head was also put on the table. The innkeepers treated their regular guests to goodies and drinks. And afterwards it was customary for the regular customers to treat the innkeeper. The traditional drinks on New Year's Eve or New Year's Eve were chocolate milk, anise milk, sage milk, mulled wine, champagne, an Elixir de Malines or Cognac and of course beers and gin. People happily drank to each other's health!
Singing from New Year to New Year.
Traditionally, processions were also held by both adults and children. People then went from door to door to wish happiness in the new year and sang a song. After the song, the singers received a gift. Some candy for the kids and a drink for the adults. The most famous song sung in Mechelen is of course 'Nieuwjaarke Zoete'.
“Nieve jarke sweet 't veirke hei four poete
Four poete and ne sheit is then da veirke niske weit?
“Nieve jarke sweet 't veirke hei four poete.
Four poete and ne sheit is da gien ponkoek weit?
Nieve jarke zoet 't veirke hei four poete, ha hei zoe long oop stall stood, Jan cookie bak he did it. Then give me a cookie.
The cookie isn't baked, then give ma wa in our pockets.
Because it's New Year because it's New Year.
New jarke sweet sea d'iens after my feet I give him my father his shoes oem to go around today.
New jarke, I'm standing here I booted him a sample and it won't ditch
I'm a mêske and it doesn't want anything. I butter him and he doesn't want braje.
I send a cookie and can't eat it. Give maa dan da koekske and leut mau loupe.”
We stand here in the kaâ, we shook and we tremble.
Our heather da breaks from raâ, who wants to give us wa? Good beer or brandewaun?
And so it goes on for several stanzas before ending with:
“At year, not year. Twie cakes and ê pair I wish a happy new year!”
They were typical processions as we also know them on Sint Maarten and Epiphany. Sing songs from door to door to get a gift. The fact that it is about a pig or boar around New Year can be explained by the fact that our distant ancestors ate 'boar' during their midwinter feasts.
As I mentioned, adults were given a drink after singing. Children were given all kinds of goodies typical of that time. For example 'affeirkens', which were black syrup sticks. Or 'Mechelse nopjes' and 'Mariekenskoeken' and of course 'potassium sticks', that was licorice.
Be careful not only the singers from door to door came to wish New Year. But also, for example, the men who had to light the lanterns in the city. Or the 'gazette men, night watchmen, letter carriers, etc. No work was done anywhere on New Year's Day. Then people everywhere went 'Wish New Year' and of course 'Kiss New Year'. Everywhere in Mechelen echoed: “Ne happy zenne', “All I can wish for you” or “Blessed and happy New Year”. Tobacco merchants handed out cigars to their good customers, confectioners gave sugar cakes to loyal customers and the grocery stores served gingerbread to regular customers. And of course the candy shops in turn gave candy to the children.
New Year letters.
Speaking of children. A now waning tradition is that of reading New Year's letters. In the past, these were very colorful letters that were read by baptismal children to their godmothers and godparents. The letters then contained images typical for the end of the year: holly, snowmen, robins, mistletoe, Christmas trees, hearts, snowy landscapes and of course Mary and the baby Jesus.
After reading the letter, the godparents owed a gift. Usually candy, new clothes or a penny.
Decision
Clearly much was desired in the old days. Anyone who thinks that our ancestors couldn't celebrate is thinking wrong. The end-of-year celebrations lasted even longer than they do now. At least until Epiphany. Greetings and congratulations echoed everywhere through the streets of Mechelen.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mysterieus-mechelen/mechelen-van-oudjaar-naar-nieuwjaar-in-vervlogen-tijden/416244026185945/
Dear Ronnie,
my thanks for the version of 'Nievejourke sweet' (written in our dialect). Is the first time I read the real text.
I only knew a derivative version:
Nievejourke sweet
my father is not a god
my mother es e wildkonoun
tsa meire keiremis would.
Although our hometowns are not far apart, can never be 'far' in the small Belgian country, there was still a difference in the New Year's experiences.
This is how it went with us, for the children, in the region of Ninove:
in the morning of the last day of the year, went. the children, including me and my two sisters, on a walk in the village. We called or knocked. When it was opened, we shouted “GOESJDEEL” (God's part). We then received a few pennies or candy that we kept in a 'purse', which was often a 'washcloth'. The children informed each other depending on whether they gave or not: you should definitely go there, they give 2 francs and not one or half francs….. You shouldn't go there, they don't give anything… In the village of Denderwindeke no 'Goesjdeel' was ' called but 'Dear cookie jar'.
At 12 o'clock it was over and the children gathered to count their 'loot' and went to a neighborhood shop to buy sweets with the collected money. I don't know if this still exists, as I am now talking about 60 years ago.
Other than that it went, with us, as you described.