A New Years Tradition

Every culture has it's festivities for ringing in the New Year. Whether it's fireworks in Sydney

Or parades in Bali, India

Or rituals led by Shinto priests to pray for health and happiness in the New Year

We all do something different. Many people may say that New Years Day is just another day and that if one wanted to make a change one should simply do so without needing a holiday to do it. I would argue that this is faulty logic. This logic does not account for the impact that an idea has. The idea here being that a new year is a clean slate. Across all cultural and ethnic borders is the idea that with the New Year comes a New Chance. A second chance. An opportunity to try again, refresh our batteries, and refocus our aims on what it is we want for ourselves and our world. Certainly one doesn't need to wait for the New Year to do this, but it's a wonderful catalyst that can inspire people and give them a reason to be bolder, less afraid of risk, and prod their hunger for furthering themselves as human beings. 

I'm going to share a small tradition that many people in my culture participate in. Ever since I was little, on New Years eve, about fifteen minutes to midnight, my family would pass around grapes, and everyone was to pick out twelve and eat them only when the clock struck twelve. My family always made it a race to see who could finish the grapes first (My grandfather always won. Even when we accidentally picked grapes with seeds in them).

My grapes! Without seeds...

The idea behind this tradition is that eating twelve grapes would bring you twelve months of good luck.

Whatever traditions or customs you participate in or celebrate, I hope you have a fruitful (get it?) year full of luck and blessings!

Please share whatever traditions you may celebrate in the comments! Let's get a discussion going. Happy 2013!

all photos (excluding the grapes) from The Telegraph and can be viewed here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9772591/New-Years-Eve-celebrations-around-the-world-as-it-happened.html