168 Fun Facts About New Year's

Times Square, home of the New Year's Eve ball drop since 1907, went by what name until 1904?

Longacre Square was renamed in 1904 when The New York Times moved into a new tower there, and the paper threw the square's first New Year's Eve party that December.

Which crystal maker's panels have covered the Times Square ball since the millennium drop of 1999-2000?

Waterford made the millennium ball's crystal in Ireland; the 11,875-pound version that arrived in 2008 stayed on show on the roof all year.

With the Times Square ball dark for the wartime dimout of 1942 and 1943, how did crowds mark midnight?

A minute of silence, then chimes rung from sound trucks parked at the foot of the tower, greeted both wartime years; the crowds turned up anyway.

More than a ton of what is released over the Times Square crowd at midnight on New Year's Eve?

Confetti is thrown by hand by a team of volunteers lining the rooftops around the square, led by a man the organisers call their confetti master.

Which TV host created 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' in 1972 and fronted it until his death in 2012?

Dick Clark created the special in 1972; after a 2004 stroke he handed main hosting to Ryan Seacrest but kept the midnight countdown himself until his death in 2012.

Who wrote down 'Auld Lang Syne' in 1788, insisting he had only transcribed it from an old man's singing?

Robert Burns sent the song to the Scots Musical Museum; its opening echoes a ballad printed in 1711, but the rest of the poem is thought to be his own work.

What does 'Auld Lang Syne' roughly translate to in English?

Times long past is a loose rendering of the Scots, literally 'old long since'; the tune sung today was only paired with the words in 1799, replacing the melody first printed with them.

Which bandleader's annual CBS broadcast helped make 'Auld Lang Syne' a New Year's tradition?

Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played it at midnight on air for nearly half a century; 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' was conceived in 1972 as a youthful alternative to his big-band show.

Which feared computer glitch was expected to strike as clocks reached midnight on 1 January 2000?

The Y2K bug came from programs that stored years as two digits, so 2000 could be read as 1900; after years of costly fixes, the night passed with few major failures.

What did Danes traditionally hurl against friends' and neighbours' doors on New Year's Eve?

Old crockery: Danes saved chipped dishes all year and smashed them against friends' doors, where a doorstep covered in shards counted as a sign of good luck and strong friendships.

What colour do Brazilians traditionally wear on New Year's Eve for peace and good luck?

White is worn by millions of Brazilians of every faith who crowd the beaches at midnight, throwing white flowers into the sea as offerings to the goddess Iemanjá.

What do Scots call New Year's Eve, which Edinburgh marks with a huge street party?

Hogmanay matters enough in Scotland that 2 January is a bank holiday there too; the first visitor after midnight, the 'first-footer', is supposed to set the household's luck for the year.

What do people in the Philippines traditionally display on New Year's Eve to attract prosperity?

Round fruits, twelve of them for the twelve months, go on the table because circles are thought to attract wealth, which is also why many Filipinos wear polka dots that night.

In Japan, Buddhist temples ring their bells how many times on New Year's Eve?

108 strokes are usually said to stand for the 108 worldly desires of Buddhist teaching, each ring driving one out so that the new year starts clean.

What do Latin American families set alight in the street at midnight on New Year's Eve?

Life-size effigies stuffed with paper and old clothes stand for whatever people disliked about the past twelve months, and are often made to look like a politician or celebrity.

Which noodles do the Japanese eat on New Year's Eve in the 'year-crossing' dish called toshikoshi?

Soba noodles are easy to bite through, so eating them is said to cut away the old year's hardships; their length also stands for a long life.

What do residents of Johannesburg's Hillbrow throw out of windows on New Year's Eve?

Old furniture goes out of the high-rise windows as a literal 'out with the old', a way of dumping unwanted things so that the year starts fresh.

Colombians hoping for a year of travel walk around the block at midnight carrying what?

An empty suitcase is thought to invite a year of journeys; the ritual has cousins elsewhere, with Chileans walking the streets with a case and Costa Ricans dashing across the road with luggage.

How many animals are in the Chinese zodiac cycle?

12 animals take turns in an order that legend credits to a race called by the Jade Emperor, which the Rat won by riding across the river on the Ox's back.

In the Chinese zodiac's Great Race legend, which animal is tricked out of a place in the cycle?

The cat loses out through the Rat's trickery in each telling, pushed into the river in one version and cheated at the finish in another, which is said to be why cats hate rats.

What do the hóngbāo envelopes handed to children at Chinese New Year traditionally contain?

Money goes inside, in crisp new notes, and givers avoid any amount with a four in it because the word for four sounds like 'death' in Chinese.

Which festival brings Chinese New Year celebrations to a close?

Lantern Festival falls at the first full moon of the lunar year; riddles are written on the lanterns, and whoever solves one wins a small gift.

Which beast of Chinese legend, whose name is also the word for 'year', is scared off by New Year firecrackers?

Nian crept out of hiding each New Year to prey on villagers until they found that loud noise and bright lights sent it running, the story behind the drums and firecrackers.

Which Roman leader's calendar reform of 46 BC introduced the 365-day year with leap days?

Julius Caesar's reform stretched 46 BC to 445 days, the 'year of confusion', to reset the drift, then fixed a 365-day year with one leap day every fourth year.

The first month of the year takes its name from which Roman god?

Janus is shown with two faces, and the doors of his shrine in Rome stood open in wartime and were shut only in the rare years of peace.

England's legal year began on 25 March until 1752, which is why Britain's tax year still starts in which month?

April: when eleven days were dropped in 1752, the old new year of 25 March, known as Lady Day, slid to 5 April, and the tax year has turned over in early April ever since.

The Gregorian calendar, which is used worldwide today, was introduced by which Pope?

Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in October 1582 via the papal bull 'Inter gravissimas.' It corrected the drift in the Julian calendar by adjusting leap year rules, and most Catholic countries adopted it immediately.

Which fruit is dipped in honey at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to wish for a sweet year?

Apples dipped in honey are eaten after a blessing, and the holiday's challah bread is baked round rather than in its usual long shape.

Nowruz, the Persian New Year, coincides with which astronomical event?

Spring equinox is the moment the Persian year turns; on the last Tuesday night before it, people leap over bonfires to leave the old year's ills in the flames.

Enkutatash, a New Year festival that falls on 11 September, is celebrated in which African country?

Ethiopia keeps its own calendar, which runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian one, so the country celebrated its turn of the millennium in September 2007.

Which Benedictine monk is popularly credited with pioneering Champagne at Hautvillers abbey?

Dom Pérignon, cellar master at Hautvillers, is wrongly credited with inventing sparkling wine: in his day bubbles were a fault, and he worked to stop bottles fermenting a second time.

The first Times Square New Year's ball, lowered in 1907, was lit by roughly how many light bulbs?

100 bulbs of 25 watts lit the 700-pound iron-and-wood original, built by an immigrant metalworker whose sign company went on lowering the ball for most of the century.

Which drink does a first-footer traditionally carry over the threshold just after midnight?

Whisky is there to toast the new year; the other classic first-foot gifts are coal for warmth, a silver coin for prosperity, salt for flavour and shortbread for food.

Dubai swapped its New Year fireworks for a record-setting light show on which building to welcome 2018?

Burj Khalifa's 'Light Up 2018' took the Guinness record for the largest light and sound show on a single building; the fireworks were back the following New Year's Eve.

Samoa skipped 30 December 2011 to share a working week with which two trading partners?

Australia and New Zealand had been almost a full day ahead, so Samoa went to bed on Thursday 29 December and woke on Saturday 31 December; Tokelau made the same switch that night.

Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks are centred on which landmark, with barges and rooftops firing in support?

Sydney Harbour Bridge once carried a lit symbol for each year's theme; the 1999 finale spelled out 'Eternity', the word a local man chalked on the city's footpaths for 35 years.

What do Danes traditionally do on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve?

Jump off a chair: Danes climb onto chairs, sofas and tables during the countdown so as to be in mid-air as the year turns, then bring out kransekage, a tower of marzipan rings.

What is the Japanese name for the year's first shrine or temple visit?

Hatsumode draws millions to the big shrines in the first three days of January; visitors buy new lucky charms and hand back last year's to be burned.

Which fitness platform coined 'Quitter's Day' for when users most often abandon New Year's resolutions?

Strava coined 'Quitter's Day' after analysing millions of logged activities: the mid-January date on which the most users give up the goals they set at New Year.

In 'When Harry Met Sally', what happens between the pair at the New Year's Eve party that ends the film?

He confesses his love: Harry runs to the party, catches Sally as she is about to leave and lists the things he loves about her, a year after both had hidden their feelings at another New Year's party.

Tết, the lunar new year, is the most important festival of which country?

Vietnam's Tết fills homes with peach blossom and kumquat trees; in 1968 the North launched its Tet Offensive during the holiday, when many of the South's soldiers were on leave.

What made January 1, 1863 one of the most significant New Year's Days in American history?

The Emancipation Proclamation took effect that day, declaring enslaved people in the rebelling states 'forever free'; the news took more than two years to be enforced in Texas, the day Juneteenth marks.

Which game, first played 1 January 1902, began the New Year's Day bowl tradition?

The Rose Bowl began with Michigan beating Stanford 49-0, a rout so lopsided that organisers dropped football for chariot races and did not bring the game back until 1916.

Which city sends costumed string bands and comic brigades through its streets in the Mummers Parade every New Year's Day?

Philadelphia made the parade official in 1901, but it grew out of a much older custom of neighbours going door to door in disguise on New Year's Day, shouting and firing guns.

Gujarati New Year, Bestu Varas, falls on the day after which festival?

Diwali ends and Gujaratis wake to their new year, greeting neighbours with 'Saal Mubarak' and starting it by buying salt, sold that morning as sabras, 'the good things in life'.

In the American South, which food is eaten on New Year's Day for luck, often with rice as Hoppin' John?

Black-eyed peas, which stand for coins, with collard greens for banknotes. One story says the tradition dates to the Civil War, when Union troops left the peas behind as animal feed and they kept the South fed.

Kadomatsu, the New Year decorations set at Japanese doorways, pair pine with which other plant?

Bamboo and pine stand at the gate as a temporary home for the New Year deity, and the decoration is traditionally burned once the holiday ends, to send the spirit on its way.

Which Pacific island nation, whose Line Islands sit at UTC+14, is the first inhabited place on Earth to greet each New Year?

Kiribati once straddled the date line, so its two halves were always on different days; at the end of 1994 it shifted the line east, and the first New Year on Earth came as a bonus.

Which inhabited US territory is the last to see in the New Year, an hour after Hawaii?

American Samoa lies just east of the date line, so its midnight comes a full day after that of independent Samoa next door; only the uninhabited Baker and Howland islands are later.

Israelis call 31 December by what name, to distinguish it from Rosh Hashanah?

Silvester is the name Israelis use for 31 December, borrowed from Europe; Tel Aviv's council reportedly voted to ban Silvester parties in 1934, without much effect.

Which Japanese broadcaster has aired the Kohaku Uta Gassen song contest since 1951?

NHK began the contest as a January radio show in 1951 and moved it to New Year's Eve when television coverage started at the end of 1953; a women's team has faced a men's team ever since.

Which Asian capital rings in the New Year by striking its Bosingak bell 33 times at midnight?

Seoul's bell once announced the opening and closing of the city gates every day under the Joseon kings, and its evening toll began the night curfew.

Which dish do Filipinos serve at their New Year's Eve feast as a wish for long life?

Pancit's long noodles stand for a long life at Media Noche, the midnight feast that follows a deafening burst of firecrackers, horns and banged pots meant to scare off bad luck.

Taiwan's main New Year fireworks have been fired since the end of 2004 from the sides of which building?

Taipei 101 fitted a 55-storey LED screen to its north face for the 2018 show, making up for a cut in firework shells meant to reduce the smoke.

Which waltz do Austrian broadcasters play right after the Pummerin bell strikes midnight?

The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II goes out on every ORF channel straight after the Pummerin, the great bell of St Stephen's Cathedral; it began life as a choral song with satirical words.

Which British comedy sketch has aired on German television every New Year's Eve since 1972?

Dinner for One, recorded in English for a German broadcaster in 1963, became a ritual there while staying almost unknown at home: its first national British airing came only in 2018.

German and Finnish revellers practise molybdomancy, telling New Year fortunes from what?

Molten metal in water: Germans call it Bleigiessen, 'lead pouring', and read the future in the hardened shapes; since rules of 2018 curbed lead kits, tin and wax have taken over.

The German wish 'Guten Rutsch' literally wishes you a good what into the new year?

Slide is the literal sense of 'Rutsch', though German dictionaries think the wish began as 'have a good journey', perhaps coloured by the Yiddish 'rosh', the head of the year.

Whose New Year's Eve fireworks are launched over the Parthenon?

Athens fires its midnight fireworks over the Acropolis and the Parthenon; Greek families then cut a vasilopita with a coin baked inside for luck.

What colour underwear do Italians traditionally wear on New Year's Eve for luck?

Red underwear is said to bring love in the year ahead, while the yellow favoured in Chile and Venezuela is meant to bring wealth.

Which legume do Italians eat at midnight on New Year's Eve because it looks like little coins?

Lentils are served with zampone or cotechino sausage; an old custom, rarely kept now, was to eat one spoonful for each stroke of the midnight bell.

Which Dutch New Year's snack is a deep-fried doughnut ball?

Oliebollen, dusted with icing sugar, are sold from street stalls through the winter; rural Dutch also fire milk-churn lids skyward with calcium carbide, a listed piece of cultural heritage.

Portuguese revellers eat twelve of which dried fruit at midnight, one for each month of the new year?

Raisins, twelve of them, are eaten as midnight strikes in Portugal, with a wish made on each one; families also share Bolo-Rei, a crown-shaped cake that once hid a dried fava bean.

Whoever finds the fava bean in Portugal's Bolo-Rei must do what?

Buy next year's cake: whoever bites the dried fava bean owes the following year's Bolo-Rei, while the small metal trinket once baked in beside it was said to bring its finder luck.

Which Russian president announced his resignation in his 1999 New Year's address?

Boris Yeltsin resigned in his televised 31 December 1999 address, apologising to Russians for dreams that had not come true and naming Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acting president.

Which Soviet comedy, about a drunk Muscovite who wakes in a stranger's identical Leningrad flat, airs in Russia every New Year's Eve?

The Irony of Fate turns on Soviet sameness: the hero's Moscow key opens a flat at the same address in Leningrad. It first aired on 1 January 1976 and is still repeated every New Year's Eve.

Ded Moroz delivers New Year gifts with help from his granddaughter, known as what?

Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden of Russian fairy tales, became Ded Moroz's granddaughter and helper only in Soviet times, after New Year parties with a fir tree were allowed again in 1935.

Which Madrid square hosts Spain's main New Year's Eve gathering?

Puerta del Sol's clock, on the old Post Office building, strikes midnight live on national television; for 2018-19 it was then put back an hour to strike twelve again for the Canary Islands.

Growers from which Spanish province pushed the twelve-grape custom in 1909 to sell a surplus?

Alicante growers, facing a bumper 1909 harvest, promoted the twelve-grape custom nationwide; the practice had been recorded in Madrid as early as the 1880s.

Which 10 km race is run through Madrid on the evening of New Year's Eve?

The San Silvestre Vallecana, first run in 1964, is a 10 km road race through Madrid on 31 December, finishing in the Vallecas district, with a mass popular race and an elite race.

Which ice hockey tournament, hosted by Davos since 1923, traditionally plays its final on New Year's Eve?

The Spengler Cup was donated by Davos doctor Carl Spengler to bring together young players from nations that had been enemies in the First World War; Oxford University won the first one.

Since 2004, the UK capital's midnight New Year fireworks have been launched from the Thames and which landmark?

The London Eye has anchored the capital's midnight fireworks since 2004; for 2020-21 and 2021-22, with crowds barred by the pandemic, the show moved to other landmarks as a broadcast-only event.

Marchers in Stonehaven, Scotland, swing what around their heads at midnight?

Burning fireballs, cages of chicken wire packed with rags and paper, are swung up and down Stonehaven's High Street as the midnight bells ring, then hurled into the harbour.

Which Welsh custom sees children sing door to door for gifts and money on New Year's Day?

Calennig sends Welsh children from door to door on New Year's morning, singing for coins and treats; some carry an apple set on three sticks and decorated with a sprig of box and nuts.

What did Atlanta start lowering from a tower at midnight on New Year's Eve in 1989?

A giant peach stood for Georgia, the Peach State, and came down at Underground Atlanta from 1989; the drop was then called off three years running from 2020.

What does Miami raise up the side of the InterContinental hotel as midnight approaches on New Year's Eve?

A neon orange in sunglasses, nicknamed the Big Orange, climbs the hotel beside Bayfront Park as midnight nears, where other cities let a ball drop.

Which composer helped found the New Year's Eve Concert for Peace at Manhattan's Cathedral of Saint John the Divine?

Leonard Bernstein helped found the cathedral's New Year's Eve Concert for Peace; the 1990 concert became a tribute to him, held two months after his death.

Which US state capital lowers a giant copper acorn at midnight on New Year's Eve?

Raleigh is nicknamed the City of Oaks for its oak-lined streets, so its acorn, made to mark the city's 1992 bicentennial, is lowered by crane each New Year's Eve.

Which Rio de Janeiro beach hosts one of the world's biggest New Year's fireworks displays, drawing millions of revellers to the sand?

Copacabana's beach party grew out of Candomblé worshippers bringing offerings for Iemanjá, the sea goddess; revellers still send flowers out on the waves for her on the night.

Ecuadorian men dress in drag on 31 December to represent what?

Widows of the old year: the 'viudas' wail for their dying husband, the departing year, dancing in the streets and making passing drivers pay a toll.

Office workers in Montevideo's Old City throw what out of the windows before year's end?

Torn-up calendars and old papers: Montevideo's 'lluvia de papeles' showers the Old City's streets, joined by buckets of water and a cider fight at the Mercado del Puerto.

Which English preacher adopted the Moravians' 'Watch Night' vigil, now kept on New Year's Eve?

John Wesley borrowed the vigil from the Moravians in 1740, offering his Methodists a godly alternative to nights of drunken revelry, New Year's Eve among them.

Which songwriter, who also wrote 'Baby, It's Cold Outside', penned 'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?' in 1947?

Frank Loesser meant it as a question asked months ahead by someone newly in love, and his daughter recalled that it annoyed him to hear the song saved for the holidays.

Which Times owner staged the first Times Square New Year's Eve fireworks in 1904?

Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, threw a fireworks party on 31 December 1904 to celebrate the paper's move to its new headquarters, One Times Square.

The first Times Square ball was inspired by a time ball atop which structure?

Western Union's telegraph HQ on lower Broadway dropped a time ball at noon each day; the Times borrowed the idea for midnight after the city banned its New Year fireworks.

Which bell's chimes, carried by the BBC, mark midnight for the UK on New Year's Eve?

Big Ben, the 13.7-tonne great bell at Westminster, fell silent for repairs from 2017 to 2022, yet it still sounded each New Year's Eve to mark midnight.

Which John Lennon song is played in Times Square at 11:55 pm before the ball drop?

Imagine has preceded the drop since 2005-06 and been sung live by a guest since 2010-11; a year later CeeLo Green angered Lennon fans by rewording its line about religion.

Which boxing legend pressed the ceremonial Times Square button to welcome 2001?

Muhammad Ali pushed the button beside Mayor Giuliani on 31 December 2000; the gesture is symbolic, since the drop itself is run from a control room timed by a satellite signal.

Which New York mayor took his oath on the Times Square stage minutes into 2002?

Michael Bloomberg was sworn in on the Times Square stage just after the ball dropped on 1 January 2002, since a mayor's term begins at midnight; Eric Adams repeated the gesture in 2022.

Seollal, marked with tteokguk soup and bows to elders, is which country's lunar new year?

South Korea's Seollal is a three-day holiday for visiting family, performing the sebae bow to elders and eating tteokguk rice-cake soup, which by tradition adds a year to one's age.

For 1981-82, the Times Square ball was restyled with red bulbs and a green stem as what?

A Big Apple: from 1981 to 1988 the ball wore red bulbs and a green stem to tie in with the I Love New York tourism campaign.

Why did the 1987-88 Times Square ball drop take slightly longer than usual?

A leap second had been added to the end of 1987, so the drop was stretched to 61 seconds to match, even though leap seconds are inserted at midnight UTC, five hours before New York's midnight.

Which disco legend sang 'I Will Survive' at the pandemic-era 2020-21 Times Square event?

Gloria Gaynor performed 'I Will Survive' in an almost empty Times Square on 31 December 2020, when attendance was limited to media, performers and families of essential workers.

Which singer returned to Times Square for the bitterly cold 2017-18 ball drop, a year after her set there fell apart?

Mariah Carey sang without a hitch at one of the coldest ball drops on record and joked on stage about wanting hot tea; the coldest of all, in 1917, was 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Which network aired the first New Year's Rockin' Eve in 1972, before ABC made the special its own?

NBC carried the first edition, hosted by the rock band Three Dog Night while the show's creator only reported from Times Square; ABC took the special over for 1974-75.

Which fruit cake is a traditional first-footing gift in Scotland?

Black bun, a dense fruit cake sealed in a pastry case, began as a Twelfth Night treat and moved to New Year after the Reformation; first-footers bring it so the household will not go hungry.

Traditionally, what kind of man makes the luckiest first-foot?

Tall and dark-haired: the preferred first-foot, as some link the distrust of fair-haired strangers to memories of Viking raids.

Which church frowned on Christmas for centuries, leaving New Year as Scotland's main winter celebration?

The Presbyterian Church of Scotland treated Christmas as a popish feast after the Reformation, and a 1640 act abolished the Yule holiday; Christmas Day became a Scottish public holiday only in 1958.

Which 1946 film ends with a crowd singing 'Auld Lang Syne' around George Bailey?

It's a Wonderful Life, Frank Capra's 1946 film, closes with the townsfolk of Bedford Falls singing 'Auld Lang Syne' as they bail out James Stewart's George Bailey on Christmas Eve.

Which two classical composers each wrote their own arrangement of 'Auld Lang Syne'?

Haydn and Beethoven were among the star composers whose folk-song settings the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson printed; Beethoven's version sits in his Twelve Scottish Folksongs.

Which country used the 'Auld Lang Syne' tune for its national anthem until 1972?

The Maldives sang its anthem to the 'Auld Lang Syne' tune, borrowed from a chiming clock, until a new melody was hastily commissioned ahead of Queen Elizabeth II's visit in 1972.

During 'Auld Lang Syne' at the Millennium Dome in 1999, Queen Elizabeth II followed Scottish custom by doing what?

Not crossing her arms at the start is the Scottish way: in Scotland the arms are crossed only for the last verse, and the Queen was following that custom.

Which George M. Cohan song deliberately quotes the first line of 'Auld Lang Syne'?

You're a Grand Old Flag began as 'You're a Grand Old Rag', a Civil War veteran's fond name for his tattered flag; Cohan swapped the word after protests, and the chorus still borrows the old Scots song's opening.

A 2007 University of Bristol study found what share of New Year's resolutions fail?

88% of the 3,000 participants in Richard Wiseman's 2007 study failed their resolutions, even though 52% had been confident of success at the start.

Baby New Year is usually drawn wearing a diaper, a sash with the year, and what?

A top hat: Baby New Year is drawn in a diaper, a sash bearing the year and a top hat; he is often paired with Father Time, into whom he ages by year's end.

In Rudolph's Shiny New Year, the runaway Baby New Year is named what?

Happy, the Baby New Year, ran away because everyone laughed at his big ears; in the 1976 Rankin/Bass special a giant vulture hunts him to stop the old year from ever ending.

The 'Old New Year' feasts held on 14 January follow the old calendar still kept by which churches?

Orthodox churches in Russia, Serbia and elsewhere kept the old calendar, now 13 days behind, so its 1 January lands on 14 January; many families simply see in the New Year twice.

Which Welsh valley celebrates the Old New Year, Hen Galan, on 13 January?

Cwm Gwaun, the Gwaun Valley in Pembrokeshire, kept the Julian date when Britain changed calendars in 1752; children skip school to sing house to house for calennig.

Which Roman king is credited with adding the months of January and February?

Numa Pompilius, Rome's legendary second king, is credited with adding January and February to a ten-month year that began in March, which is why the last four months still carry numbers two places out of step.

Which currency's notes and coins first entered circulation on New Year's Day 2002?

The euro had existed since 1 January 1999 only as an accounting currency; its cash arrived exactly three years later, and within two months the old national notes and coins were gone.

In which era did Japan adopt the Gregorian calendar, moving its New Year to 1 January?

Meiji reformers made the switch on 1 January 1873, five years after the restoration, dropping the old lunisolar calendar so that Japan's dates matched those of the Western powers.

What are the traditional Japanese New Year dishes, prepared ahead to keep without refrigeration, called?

Osechi, packed in tiered jubako boxes, is made ahead because cooking was once taboo for the first three days of the year; the dishes are sweet, sour or dried so that they keep.

Which fruit tops the two-tier kagami mochi New Year decoration in Japan?

A daidai tangerine: the bitter orange is auspicious because 'daidai' also sounds like 'several generations', a wish for the family line to continue.

What are the Japanese New Year's postcards timed to arrive on 1 January called?

Nengajo: Japan Post holds cards posted in late December and delivers them together on the morning of 1 January; families in mourning send a mochu hagaki instead, asking friends not to send cards.

The Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert has been held since 1939 in the Golden Hall of which building?

The Musikverein has housed it since the first concert on 31 December 1939, a wartime benefit staged under Nazi rule; every one since has been played on New Year's morning.

Who led the 1939 Vienna New Year's Concert, the only one not held on New Year's Day?

Clemens Krauss conducted it on 31 December 1939 as an 'extraordinary' concert under Nazi propaganda auspices, with proceeds going to the Kriegswinterhilfswerk war-winter relief fund.

Thailand's traditional new year, Songkran, fills the streets each April with what?

Water fights grew out of a gentle custom of pouring a little water over elders' hands as a mark of respect; Songkran was Thailand's official new year until 1888.

Which Canadian city's Polar Bear Swim Club has plunged into English Bay on New Year's Day since 1920?

Vancouver's club signs up 1,000 to 2,000 swimmers in a typical year, but nobody enforces registration, so many more wade in beside them while thousands of onlookers stay dry.

Which country, thanks to its overseas territories, greets the New Year in more time zones than any other?

France spans twelve time zones, or thirteen counting its Antarctic claim, so midnight keeps arriving for almost a full day. Islands from Polynesia to the Caribbean account for nearly all of them.

Which cartoon character's 1928 short Steamboat Willie entered the US public domain on New Year's Day 2024?

Mickey Mouse went free only in his earliest form, because US copyrights expire each 1 January, nicknamed Public Domain Day. Later versions of the character remain protected.

Which Caribbean nation marks independence each 1 January with soup joumou, a pumpkin soup once denied to the enslaved?

Haiti won its freedom on New Year's Day 1804, and people celebrated by eating the soup all day. Plantation workers had grown the squash for it but were forbidden to taste it.

Which Indonesian island greets its new year, Nyepi, with a day of silence that even closes the airport?

Bali empties its streets for the whole day, and the only people outdoors are traditional guards called pecalang. The evening before is the opposite: villages parade demon statues called ogoh-ogoh, then set them alight.

In the Great Race legend behind the Chinese zodiac, which animal took first place by riding across a river on the ox?

The Rat jumped off the ox at the far bank and rushed to the Jade Emperor ahead of everyone. In one telling it also pushed the cat into the river, which is why no year is named after cats.

A few days after New Year, in early January, Earth reaches which point in its yearly orbit of the Sun?

Its closest approach, called perihelion, comes about two weeks after the December solstice. Northern winters are cold because of the planet's tilt, not its distance from the Sun.

In which Disney Channel movie do Troy and Gabriella first meet singing karaoke at a New Year's Eve ski-lodge party?

High School Musical opens with the two strangers called up for the duet 'Start of Something New' at a Utah resort. Only after the holidays does Gabriella turn up as a new student at Troy's school.

In which animated series is pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry accidentally frozen at midnight on New Year's Eve 1999?

Futurama begins when a party horn startles Fry into an open cryonic tube, and he thaws out exactly 1,000 years later. The pilot aired nine months before the real millennium countdown.

In the carol about the Twelve Days of Christmas, day eight falls on New Year's Day and brings eight maids doing what?

A-milking maids arrive on 1 January because the count starts on Christmas Day itself. The church calendar agrees: New Year's Day is the Octave Day of Christmas, and an octave is an eighth day.

Pasadena's New Year's Day parade of flower-covered floats moves to 2 January whenever the holiday falls on which day?

Sunday has been off limits since 1893, when organisers did not want to disturb horses hitched outside church services. The rule has long outlived the horses.

Which pop group recorded the wistful 'Happy New Year' for the 1980 album Super Trouper?

ABBA first gave the song the working title 'Daddy Don't Get Drunk on Christmas Day'. A Spanish-language version, 'Felicidad', followed for Spanish-speaking markets.

Which singer closes her album Reputation with 'New Year's Day', a piano ballad about cleaning up after the party?

Taylor Swift recorded it on an acoustic piano in rough 'scratch takes', which makes it the only acoustic song on the record. The lyrics grew out of a real party she had hosted at home.

In Ghostbusters II, which New York landmark do the heroes bring to life and steer through the streets on New Year's Eve?

The Statue of Liberty is their answer to a river of slime that feeds on bad feeling. A symbol everyone loves, walked past cheering crowds, is enough to weaken it.

Which Hans Christian Andersen tale follows a barefoot child trying to sell her wares on a freezing New Year's Eve?

The Little Match Girl lights her unsold stock one stick at a time to keep warm, and each flame shows her a vision. The last is her late grandmother, the only person who was ever kind to her.

Which bearded figure with a scythe and hourglass hands his duties to Baby New Year in cartoons each 31 December?

Father Time gained his wings and hourglass in the early Renaissance. Cartoonists cast him as the worn-out old year, handing over to an infant who will age just as fast.

At Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, apple slices are dipped in what to wish for a sweet year ahead?

Honey with apples joined the holiday table only in medieval times. Older symbolic foods on the platter include dates, leeks and a whole fish served with its head on.

Which New Zealand city launches its midnight New Year fireworks from the top of the 328-metre Sky Tower?

Auckland's tower was the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere until 2022, when a Jakarta skyscraper overtook it.

In 'Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!', which enormous Russian novel must Charlie Brown read for a holiday book report?

War and Peace sends him to sleep on the porch, so he misses midnight at the party, and the report earns a D-minus. The teacher then assigns the class Crime and Punishment.

Which inventor first showed his incandescent light bulb to the public on New Year's Eve 1879 at Menlo Park?

Thomas Edison had filed his lamp patent only eight weeks earlier. Christie Street in Menlo Park went on to become one of the first streets in the world lit by electric lights.

Which Gothic novel, born of a ghost-story contest at Lord Byron's villa, was first published on New Year's Day 1818?

Frankenstein came out anonymously, and its author, Mary Shelley, was only 20. She had dreamed up the tale at 18, after Byron dared his guests to each write a ghost story.

Which band failed a New Year's Day 1962 audition at Decca, which signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead?

The Beatles taped fifteen songs that day, when a normal test ran to no more than five. Five of those recordings finally reached the public in 1995 on Anthology 1.

Which country split peacefully into two new states as 1993 began, a break-up nicknamed the Velvet Divorce?

Czechoslovakia ceased to exist as 1992 ended, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia began the next day as separate countries. The nickname echoes the bloodless Velvet Revolution that had ended communist rule.

Which waterway did the United States hand over to local control at noon on the last day of 1999?

The Panama Canal changed hands under treaties that Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos had signed back in 1977. A period of joint control had prepared the way.

Which New York immigration station opened on 1 January 1892 and welcomed Irish teenager Annie Moore first?

Ellis Island officials handed her a ten-dollar gold piece for being first through inspection. Almost 700 immigrants followed her over the docks that same day.

In The Godfather Part II, Michael Corleone unmasks brother Fredo as a traitor at a New Year's Eve party in which city?

Havana is seized by rebels that very night. Batista resigns and flees, and Michael, Fredo and the gangster Hyman Roth each have to escape the island separately.

Which band's 1983 single 'New Year's Day' began as a love song but ended up about Poland's Solidarity movement?

U2 scored a first UK top-ten hit with it, driven by Adam Clayton's bassline. Bono wrote the first draft of the words for his wife, then reshaped them around the Polish trade union.

Which league stages its outdoor Winter Classic around New Year's Day, starting in 2008 at a Buffalo football stadium?

NHL crowds for the game dwarf anything an indoor rink can hold. The 2014 edition at Michigan Stadium sold a league-record 105,491 tickets.

Which winter sport's Four Hills Tournament includes a New Year's Day contest at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria?

Ski jumping's four-stop series went unswept until its 50th edition, in 2001–02, when Sven Hannawald became the first to win every leg.

Which Londoner began a diary on New Year's Day 1660 that later recorded the Great Plague and the Great Fire?

Samuel Pepys wrote in shorthand and slipped into a private code of foreign words for his affairs. He kept going for almost a decade, until fears for his eyesight made him stop.

Which Victorian novelist wrote The Chimes, a goblin story of church bells that ring in a New Year?

Charles Dickens published it just a year after A Christmas Carol, as the second of his five Christmas books. Its hero, Trotty Veck, is a poor porter who has come to believe the poor are born bad.

In a medieval poem, which knight of King Arthur accepts the Green Knight's beheading game at Camelot's New Year feast?

Sir Gawain strikes off the stranger's head, only to watch him stand up, collect it and remind him of their appointment. The bargain lets the Green Knight return the blow in a year and a day.

Which country music star died in the back seat of a car on New Year's Day 1953, heading to a concert?

Hank Williams was only 29, and his heart failed in West Virginia on the drive to a show in Canton, Ohio. A New Year's Eve date the night before had already been cancelled.

Which body in the asteroid belt, now classed as a dwarf planet, did Giuseppe Piazzi discover on New Year's Day 1801?

Ceres looked so much like a moving star that Piazzi first took it for a comet, and it was then announced as a new planet. Nothing had been found in the asteroid belt before it.

In which 1983 comedy do Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy plant a forged crop report aboard a New Year's Eve train?

Trading Places has the villains' courier knocked out by a gorilla travelling on the same train. The heroes dress him in a gorilla suit and cage him with the real animal.

Which country swapped its kuna for the euro on New Year's Day 2023, becoming the eurozone's twentieth member?

Croatia kept a link to its old money: kuna is the local word for a marten, and the animal now appears on the country's euro coins.

Which rock band's drummer, Rick Allen, lost his left arm after a New Year's Eve 1984 car crash but kept playing?

Def Leppard saw him return on a specially designed electronic kit, and the band's best-selling years followed. Four pedals under his left foot play the parts his arm used to.

Which Victorian poet wrote 'Ring Out, Wild Bells', New Year verses that form part of his elegy In Memoriam?

Alfred Tennyson published the poem in 1850, the year he became Poet Laureate. A Swedish translation is recited in Stockholm every New Year's Eve, just before the stroke of midnight.

Which piece, written to honour an Austrian field marshal, do audiences clap along to at Vienna's New Year's Concert?

The Radetzky March has been a fixture since conductor Josef Krips introduced it in 1946. Austrian officers clapped and stamped their feet the first time they heard it, which began the custom.

Which US defence research network switched to the TCP/IP protocols of the modern internet on New Year's Day 1983?

ARPANET made the change after the Department of Defense declared the protocols standard for all military computer networking. The network had been running since 1969 and was closed in 1990.

Which meteor shower peaks in the first days of January, in a burst so brief it can last only hours?

The Quadrantids are named after Quadrans Muralis, a constellation that astronomers left off the official list adopted in 1930. The shower kept the obsolete name anyway.

Matariki, the Māori New Year, begins with the midwinter rising of which star cluster in the constellation Taurus?

The Pleiades vanish from New Zealand's sky for about a month each winter, and their return starts the year. Māori read the stars as a forecast: clear and bright meant a warm season ahead.

Which month, the first of the Islamic lunar calendar, opens the Hijri New Year for most Muslims?

Muharram opens a year that is eleven to twelve days shorter than the solar one, so the holiday arrives earlier every solar year. The count of years runs from the Prophet's move from Mecca to Medina.

At showy New Year's toasts, what is the trick of opening Champagne by sliding a sword along the bottle's neck called?

Sabrage does not slice the glass: the blade hits the lip of the bottle and the collar snaps off with the cork still inside it. One legend credits Napoleon's hussars, opening bottles on horseback.

In Brazil, the big New Year's Eve party goes by which borrowed word for a long late-night feast, rooted in 'waking'?

Réveillon comes from réveil, meaning waking, because guests are expected to stay up until morning as the meal winds down. The same long dinner is held on Christmas Eve in Quebec and Belgium.

Which saint, honoured in Greece on 1 January, gives his name to the country's New Year's cake baked with a hidden coin?

St Basil lends his name to vasilopita, and whoever finds the coin in their slice is promised good luck. In the region of Thessaly the coin is hidden in a pork pie instead.

Which US city launched First Night, the alcohol-free New Year's Eve arts festival, on the last night of 1975?

Boston's first edition, conceived by Clara Wainwright, gave a small group of artists and musicians indoor and outdoor stages to perform on. By 2000, more than 260 cities were holding one of their own.

Which musician wrote the party anthem '1999' after watching a TV documentary about Nostradamus and the end of the world?

Prince had the song written by the next day, his drummer recalled. He wanted something hopeful, because the friends who watched with him were dreading the millennium.

People born on New Year's Day fall under which star sign, which runs from late December into mid-January?

Capricorn's arrival is a festival in India, where Makara Sankranti marks the Sun entering the sign in mid-January. The name comes from the Latin for 'horned goat'.

Which trade pact, signed into US law by Bill Clinton in December 1993, came into force on New Year's Day 1994?

NAFTA at once scrapped tariffs on more than half of Mexico's exports to the United States. It replaced a 1988 free trade deal that covered only the US and Canada.

In which Charlie Chaplin film does the Tramp dream up a dance of bread rolls for a New Year's Eve dinner guest?

The Gold Rush leaves him alone at the table: she forgets the invitation, and at midnight he hears the townsfolk singing together at the dance hall without him.