The South Jersey community celebrated the arrival of 2025 in various ways on New Year’s Eve and the next day, from story times at local libraries to watching the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia.
Others stayed in Dec. 31, watching global celebrations on TV that included fireworks in New Zealand and Australia and celebrations across Asia and Europe as the Earth revolved on its axis. Those able to stay awake saw the annual dropping of the crystal ball in New York City’s Times Square, where more than one million people annually see the spectacle in person.
The Burlington County library in Westampton and the branch in Cinnaminson hosted story times for kids and the Victory in Christ Christian Center in Westville held two evening services on New Year’s Eve. Catholics also filled churches on New Year’s Day, a holy day of obligation.
The first known record of a New Year celebration was four millennia ago, when Babylonians in Mesopotamia observed Akitu on the vernal equinox on March 21. Assyrians celebrated the start of the year on Sept. 21, the autumn equinox.
In the 16th century, Pope Gregory changed New Year’s Day to Jan. 1, and by the 1700s, the British Empire – including the American colonies – celebrated on that date beginning in 1752.
Over the years, many traditions and customs have evolved to mark the passing of time. Ancient Greeks used the baby as a symbol of the new year and an old man representing the previous year. The Roman god Janus had two faces, one looking backward and the other forward.
Although New Year’s resolutions to adopt better habits and get rid of bad ones don’t always work out, the Babylonians started making them 4,000 years ago. The sad yet joyful Scottish ballad “Auld Lang Syne” was revised by the poet Robert Burns and has become the holiday’s theme song.
The tradition of the New Year’s kiss began in Germany and England, with the person one kisses first setting the tone for the year to come.
According to Good Housekeeping magazine, many New Year traditions revolve around food, including eating black eyed peas or 12 grapes “to make revelers live longer or to make 2025 a year of abundance.” Other traditions try to maximize luck and chasing away bad fortune by any means necessary, including buying lucky charms, performing certain rituals and wearing certain clothes, down to underwear. There are a few that focus more on prognostication and signs about the year to come.
However people celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, they are always symbols of a new beginning and a chance to improve one’s life by resolving to make better decisions.
