Sourcing American New Year traditions

Whether you kick off each new year with champagne or football, odds are it’s tradition. Many of America’s are mirrored around the world (except the football) and some were meant to ward off evil spirits at this “dark” time of year, according to anthropologist Anthony Aveni, author of "The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays" (Oxford University Press, 2004).

When I was a kid, it was about staying up to see a giant ball drop.

Drop it: Ball, fish, or tater

Why do a literal-million people crowd New York’s Times Square (plus a billion more via TV) to count down a giant, glittering New Year’s Eve Ball descending a pole? It’s silly, but even now I feel a little excited watching that LED-illuminated, 6-ton Waterford crystal ball make its minute-long, 69-foot descent. That’s quite an upgrade from the first wood-and-iron orb adorned with light bulbs in 1904.

This tradition may derive from sailors’ "time balls." According to PBS.org, sailors used spyglasses to scan the harbor for balls dropped in at certain times, which they used to set their timepieces. The first time ball was dropped in Portsmouth, England, in 1829, and the first in the U.S. was in 1845 near Washington, D.C.

No need to stick with balls. In Port Clinton, Ohio, locals watch a 600-pound walleye replica descend, and in downtown Boise, naturally, they drop a glittering "GlowTato."

Auld Lang Syne

Roughly translated “For the sake of old times,” Americans picked up this Scottish ballad about friendship, farewells and new beginnings. Poet Robert Burns penned it in 1788 but the melody he based it on is older — a folk song and mainstay of English and Scottish funerals, farewells and celebrations.

Kiss me

We may have Germans to thank for the ancient tradition of a midnight kiss. The English Yuletide tradition of "saining" — a kiss for luck or protection from evil spirits who might be lurking — derived from a pre-Christian Germanic Yuletide festival.

Black-eyed peas

It’s a southern thing. Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is said to bring good luck (and an excuse for a party). Traditional southerners prepare the pea stew with a new coin (not exactly sanitary). Whoever finds it in their bowl is believed to be extra lucky. Adding cooked collard greens (the color of cash) symbolizes a prosperous new year. And probably boosts health, even if it tastes foul.

Boom-boom lights

From Chattanooga to China (whom we can thank for inventing fireworks in the seventh century), people ring in the new year with noisemakers, sparklers and fireworks. Why? To scare off those pesky evil spirits, of course.

Before big firework displays, in cultures around the world people banged drums, lit bits of wood or beat at the corners of the room to spook away any lingering spooks.

Bubbly

Champagne may be French, but sparkling wine is as English as shepherd’s pie. In 1662, Aveni writes that Christopher Merret told the Royal Society of London that adding sugar to bottled wine makes it fizzy, if properly fermented.

Enter ecclesiastical influence and church tradition of symbolically sipping wine (at mass), which in 496 C.E. was from the Champagne region of France — at least at big events such as coronations and famous baptisms. By 1789, the French had obviously perfected making bubbly and served their champagne from Champagne at festivals and New Year celebrations.

Resolutions

The ancient Mesopotamians and early Romans, who celebrated the new year in March coincident with spring, apparently made resolutions around the new year, but they weren’t of the self-improvement variety. The point was to swear oaths to the king and curry the gods’ favor. Later, in the 18th century, some Christian churches held renewal services on Dec. 31, when congregants similarly renewed a commitment to God.

Somehow that translated over time to the modern version — more purifying, goal-setting and for some, clarifying in focus.

But if that’s not your thing, or you can’t help but notice how seldom they last, you’ll relate to Elena Johnson’s New Year’s Day column in Coeur Voice.

Either way, happy new year!

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Email Sholeh@cdapress.com.