New Year’s Traditions (Encore) - Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Summary

Everything Everywhere Daily: New Year's Traditions (Encore) – Detailed Summary

Release Date: December 31, 2024
Host: Gary Arndt | Glassbox Media

In this encore episode of Everything Everywhere Daily, host Gary Arndt delves into the diverse and fascinating New Year's traditions celebrated around the globe. Skipping over advertisements and introductory segments, Gary provides an engaging exploration of how different cultures welcome the New Year through unique rituals, festivities, and symbols.

The Iconic Ball Drop in Times Square, New York

One of the most renowned New Year's traditions is the Ball Drop in Times Square, New York City. Gary outlines its rich history and evolution:

Origin and History: The first ball drop occurred on December 31, 1907, orchestrated by Adolf Ochs, owner of the New York Times. This event replaced the previously held fireworks display. Since its inception, the ball drop has been an annual event except during 1942 and 1943, when blackout restrictions during World War II led to the observation of a moment of silence instead.
Evolution of the Ball: Over 125 years, the ball has undergone several transformations:
- 1907: The original 5-foot ball made of iron and wood, adorned with 100 incandescent bulbs.
- 1920: A solely iron ball of the same dimensions.
- 1956: A slightly larger 6-foot aluminum ball.
- 2000: Introduced by Waterford Crystal, maintaining the size.
- 2007: Enhanced with 9,576 LED lights.
- 2009-Present: The current 12-foot ball weighs nearly 12,000 pounds and boasts 32,256 LED lights capable of displaying over 16 million colors.

Gary notes, "Prior to the pandemic, about 100,000 people would pack Times Square to participate live" (04:30), highlighting the event's magnitude.

Hogmany Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland

Moving to Scotland, Gary explores Hogmany, Scotland’s grand New Year's celebration:

Historical Roots: With origins shrouded in centuries of tradition, Hogmany became particularly significant after Christmas celebrations were banned for nearly 400 years following the Protestant Reformation.
Edinburgh's Celebration: The festival in Edinburgh is a massive street party featuring live bands, fireworks, and a spectacular torchlight procession. Gary emphasizes its grandeur, "It's one of the biggest New Year's festivals in the world, and if you haven't seen photos or videos of Hogmany, I suggest you take a look as it's quite the event" (07:15).

"Auld Lang Syne": The Timeless Song

No New Year's celebration is complete without the singing of "Auld Lang Syne":

Origins: The song's lyrics are derived from a 1788 Scots poem by Robert Burns, though he acknowledged its older roots. The phrase "Auld Lang Syne" translates to sentiments like "days gone by" or "old times."
Popularization: Canadian band leader Guy Lombardo played a pivotal role in popularizing the song on New Year's Eve starting in 1929. Gary mentions, "His 1947 recording of the song has become the definitive version of it, and it's what's played in Times Square" (12:45).

Spectacular Fireworks Displays Around the World

Fireworks are a universal symbol of celebration, and Gary highlights several of the world's most impressive displays:

Sydney, Australia: Renowned for its breathtaking fireworks over the Harbor Bridge. Gary shares a personal anecdote, "I actually attended the 2014 New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney and got a spot really close to the Harbour Bridge and it was by far the best fireworks display that I've seen in my life" (15:20).
Other Major Displays:
- Rio de Janeiro: Over Copacabana Beach.
- London: Over Big Ben and the River Thames.
- Dubai: At the Burj Khalifa, transforming the world's tallest building into a colossal sparkler with synchronized fireworks.
- Taipei 101: Formerly the tallest building globally, hosts its own grand display.

Unique Global New Year's Traditions

Gary explores a variety of distinctive traditions that mark the New Year in different cultures:

Ecuador: The tradition of burning figures in effigy symbolizes the burning away of the old year. Originating from an 1895 epidemic in Guayaquil, this practice involves burning representations of celebrities and politicians, not as a sign of disapproval but as a symbolic cleansing.
Spain: Eating 12 grapes at midnight—one grape for each chime of the clock. Gary recounts his personal experience, "When I was in Spain during New Year's, everyone told me about the 12 grapes. So I went along with it" (22:10). This tradition dates back to the 19th century when grape growers in Alicante promoted grape consumption to sell excess harvest.
Scotland and England: Welcoming the first dark-haired man to enter one's home of the year is considered good luck. Gary shares a story, "When I was in high school, my debate partner's family was from northern England. And one year I was the first person to walk through the front door of their house and they noted it was good luck because I had brown hair" (24:50). This custom dates back to Viking invasions, where a light-haired man indicated impending danger.
Greece: Smashing pomegranates against doors symbolizes prosperity and good fortune, a tradition tracing back to ancient Greece.
Denmark: Breaking plates on friends' and family's doors is a customary way to celebrate.
Colombia: Carrying an empty suitcase signifies desires for travel and adventure in the coming year.
Turkey: Sprinkling salt on doorsteps is believed to ward off evil spirits.
Philippines: Consuming 12 spherical fruits is a common practice.
Naples, Italy: Throwing furniture out the window to invite a fresh start for the new year.

Gary notes, "Many of these traditions are just that, they're traditional. You might live in one of these countries and not even engage in any of these practices" (30:05), emphasizing the variability of customs.

American Traditions: College Football Bowl Games

In the United States, New Year's is closely associated with college football bowl games:

Historical Background: The first Rose Bowl game was the 1901 Tournament of Roses East-West Game between Michigan and Stanford, held on January 1. The game was named after the stadium's rose-shaped design.
Expansion: Over the decades, the number of bowl games expanded from 5 in the early 1930s to over 40 today. While many are no longer confined to New Year's Day, prominent games like the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sun Bowl remain central to the holiday's festivities.
Future Exploration: Gary hints at dedicating a future episode to the extensive college bowl system, underscoring its significance in American New Year's culture.

Father Time and Baby New Year: An Ancient Symbolism

Concluding the episode, Gary explores the enduring imagery of Father Time and Baby New Year:

Historical Origins: The figure of Father Time originates from the Greek god Kronos, the personification of time and a Titan. The Romans adapted this figure as the god Saturn.
Middle Ages Representation: Father Time was often depicted alongside the Grim Reaper, symbolizing the passage from the old year to the new.
Modern Depiction: Today, Father Time is portrayed as an elderly figure with robes and an hourglass, carrying a sash with the outgoing year. He is typically paired with Baby New Year, an infant representing the upcoming year, adorned with a sash bearing its number.

Gary humorously remarks, "Oddly enough, you never see a middle-aged Father Time in the middle of the summer wearing shorts with socks while mowing his lawn" (35:40), highlighting the traditional and enduring nature of these symbols.

Conclusion

Gary wraps up by reflecting on the universal appeal of New Year's celebrations:

“The New Year is a time for celebrating. It's very similar to the Solstice in that it's a global, mostly non-religious celebration that's held around the world. As with the Solstice, how it's celebrated is different almost everywhere. Regardless of how you celebrate the New Year, whether you're eating grapes, smashing pomegranates or watching football, I hope you all have a very great year" (37:10).

This heartfelt message underscores the shared human desire to mark the passage of time and embrace new beginnings through diverse and meaningful traditions.

Credits:
Executive Producer: Charles Daniel
Associate Producers: Benji Long and Cameron Keever
Special Thanks: Patreon supporters and the Completionist Club community.

Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections as per the episode's structure.

Transcript

Gary (0:00)

The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere daily. Once every 12 months, people around the world ring in the New Year. How they do this, however, can differ radically from place to place. New Year's traditions tend to be even more varied than Christmas traditions. As with Christmas, traditions involve drinks, food and rituals, but usually with a lot more noise and staying up later. Learn more about the traditions surrounding how we ring in the New Year on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Mike (0:44)

Yeah, sure thing. Hey, you sold that car yet?

Sarah (0:47)

Yeah, sold it to Carvana.

Mike (0:49)

Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy.

Sarah (0:52)

The guy who wanted to pay me in foreign currency, no interest over 36 months.

Gary (0:57)

Yeah, no.

Sarah (0:58)

Carvana gave me an offer in minutes, picked it up and paid me on the spot. It was so convenient.

Mike (1:04)

Just like that.

Sarah (1:05)

Yeah.

Mike (1:05)

No hassle?

Sarah (1:06)

None.

Mike (1:07)

That is super convenient. Sell your car to Carvana and swap. Hassle. For convenience, pick up. These may apply.

Gary (1:13)

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New customers on first 3 month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabits on unlimited plan. Additional tax fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. It would be impossible to cover every single New Year's tradition just because there are so many of them. So in this episode, I'll try to go over some of the world's biggest and most interesting New Year's traditions. And we might as well start with one of the most famous New Year's traditions, the dropping of the ball in Times Square in New York. The tradition is pretty simple. There is a large ball attached to a pole on the top of the One Times Square building. At 11:59pm the ball starts to move down the pole and at midnight the ball hits the bottom to welcome in the new year. The first ball drop took place on December 31, 1907. It was arranged by Adolf Ochs, the owner of the New York Times, who also owned the building back then. Ochs devised the event to replace a fireworks display that had previously taken place. In the 125 years since the ball drop began, it has been held every year, save for 1942 and 1943 due to blackout restrictions during World War II. People did gather in Times Square during the war, but they just observed a moment of silence followed by church bells. There have been four different balls that have been used in ball drop history. The first ball in 1907 was 5ft or 1.5 meters in diameter and had 100 incandescent light bulbs attached and it was made of iron and wood. The second ball was built in 1920. That one had the same dimensions, but it was made solely out of iron. The third ball was used for the first time in 1956. The new ball was slightly larger at 6ft in diameter and made out of aluminum. The ball was modified several times and the drop was finally computerized in the 1990s, so it was synced with the atomic clock run by the National Institute of time. A fourth ball was introduced for the year 2000. This was roughly the same size and was built by Waterford Crystal. A fifth ball was introduced in 2007. It was again 6ft or 1.8 meters in diameter. But this ball was filled with 9576 LED lights. The ball was short lived and replaced by a huge ball in 2009. This current ball is 12ft or 3.7 meters in diameter, weighs almost 12,000 pounds or 5,000 kilograms, and there are 32,256 LED lights inside that can produce over 16 million colors. Prior to the pandemic, about 100,000 people would pack Times Square to participate live. Another city with a huge New Year's Eve celebration is Edinburgh, Scotland. And the festival is known as Hogmany. Hogmany is actually celebrated throughout Scotland, but the biggest festivities by far are held in Edinburgh. The origins of the festival date back centuries so far that no one is really sure where the tradition started. One reason why Hogmany is so popular in Scotland is that celebrating Christmas was banned either legally or culturally for almost 400 years after. After the Protestant Reformation, Hogmany in Edinburgh is a giant street party that consists of bands, fireworks, and most noteworthy of all, a large torchlight procession. It's one of the biggest New Year's festivals in the world, and if you haven't seen photos or videos of Hogmany, I suggest you take a look as it's quite the event. And speaking of Scotland, it's the origin of one of the biggest New Year's traditions, the song Auld Lang Syne. The lyrics for the song comes from the Scots language poem written by the poet Robert burns back in 1788. However, he admitted that the song dates back centuries earlier. The term Auld Lang Syne literally translates to old long since, but a more natural translation would be something like days gone by or old times. The song became popularized by the Canadian big band leader Guy Lombardo, who began performing it on New Year's eve back in 1929. His 1947 recording of the song has become the definitive version of it, and it's what's played in Times Square. Moving on from Scotland, Perhaps the biggest New Year's fireworks display in the world is held in Sydney, Australia. Sydney lights up the entire harbor with a huge setup on the Harbor Bridge itself. Many people actually get into positions a day in advance just so they get good seats. I actually attended the 2014 New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney and got a spot really close to the Harbour Bridge and it was by far the best fireworks display that I've seen in my life. Other cities with major fireworks displays include Rio de Janeiro, which does it over Copacabana Beach, London, which has fireworks over Big Ben and the River Thames, and of course, Disney World. A unique fireworks display takes place at the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building in Dubai. The entire building is set up with fireworks and the display makes it look like a giant 2,722foot sparkler. They have a similar New Year's display@taipei101, which was formerly the tallest building in the world. In Ecuador, their celebrations also involve fire, but not necessarily fireworks. One of the big Ecuadorian traditions is to burn figures in effigy. Burning the figures is considered a way of burning away the old year. Most of the figures are celebrities and politicians who were notable during the previous year. And burning the figures isn't necessarily a sign of disliking the person like you would if you were burning a figure in effigy at a protest. The tradition actually started during an epidemic that took place in the city of Guayaquil in 1895. They had to burn the bodies of infected people in their coffins, along with all their clothing. Many of the New Year's traditions around the world aren't as big as festivals or fireworks displays. Some are rather small traditions. One I experienced firsthand was the tradition in Spain of eating grapes at the stroke of midnight. According to the tradition, you are supposed to eat one grape at each chime of the clock at midnight for a total of 12 grapes. When I was in Spain during New Year's, everyone told me about the 12 grapes. So I went along with it was just one of those things you sort of did. I later found out that the origin of the tradition actually dates back to the 19th century. Grape growers around the city of Alicante wanted to sell their remaining inventory of grapes at the end of the year. So they began promoting the tradition of eating grapes at the stroke of midnight. In parts of Scotland and England, it's considered good luck if a dark haired man is the first person to set foot in your house in the new year. When I was in high school, my debate partner's family was from northern England. And one year I was the first person to walk through the front door of their house and they noted it was good luck because I had brown hair. That was when I had hair. Supposedly the tradition dates back to when the Vikings were invading Britain. If a man with light hair came through your door, it was probably a bad sign. In Greece, there is a tradition of smashing pomegranates right after midnight. You are supposed to take a pomegranate and smash it against the door of your house. The pomegranate is considered a symbol of life and fortune and it goes all the way back to ancient Greece. In Denmark, some people will break plates against the front door of their homes of friends and family. In Colombia, if you walk around your block with an empty suitcase, it means the next year will be filled with travel and adventure. In Turkey, some people put salt on their doorsteps to keep evil spirits away. In the Philippines, you're supposed to eat 12 spherical fruits. And in Naples, some people throw their furniture out the window of their house to get a fresh start. I should note that many of these traditions are just that, they're traditional. You might live in one of these countries and not even engage in any of these practices. In the United States, one of the biggest traditions has become college football bowl games. The first college football bowl game was the 1901 Tournament of Roses east west game between Michigan and Stanford, which was played on January 1. The game later became known as the Rose bowl, which was named after the stadium it was played in, which was named because of its shape. Eventually other games were scheduled which were also played after the regular season in warm weather cities either on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. The big five bowl games, in addition to the Rose bowl, which began in the 1930s, were the sugar bowl, the Cotton bowl, the Orange bowl, and the Sun Bowl. The number of bowl games kept growing to 8 in the 1950s and 60s, 11 by 1970, and just kept getting larger. Today there are over 40. Most bowl games aren't even played around New Year's Day anymore, but the most important ones still are. The entire college bowl system is probably the subject of a future episode I want to end with one tradition, which has been around for centuries and still appears in depictions of the new Father Time and Baby New Year. You'll often see Father Time in editorial cartoons and New Year's party favors. The depiction might actually be the most ancient of all New Year's traditions. Father Time actually dates back to the Greek God Kronos. Kronos was one of the original Titans and the father of the first generation of Olympian gods. He was the Greek embodiment of the concept of time and was often depicted holding a sickle. The Romans ripped off the idea of Kronos and repositioned him as the God Saturn. In the Middle Ages, Father Time was often paired with the Grim Reaper, who was the personification of death. Today, depictions of Father Time usually have him wearing robes and carrying an hourglass to depict the passage of time, and he is usually very old with a beard. He will be wearing a sash with the outgoing year on it and likewise he's usually paired with Baby New Year, who is an infant wearing a sash with the New Year on it. Oddly enough, you never see a middle aged Father Time in the middle of the summer wearing shorts with socks while mowing his lawn. The New Year is a time for celebrating. It's very similar to the Solstice in that it's a global, mostly non religious celebration that's held around the world. As with the Solstice, how it's celebrated is different almost everywhere. Regardless of how you celebrate the New Year, whether you're eating grapes, smashing pomegranates or watching football, I hope you all have a very great year. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Keever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day and also Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to Everything are in the show notes.