New Year’s Eve has been celebrated as long as time! The Romans divided up the years, with the two-headed God Janus (from which we get January) looking back into the past and forward into the future. In English writing it has been something celebrated at least since around 1400 when Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was published – a story framing knightly deeds in the period from one New Year’s Eve to the next.
The fireworks around the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be seen on television by almost a billion people. Bells will chime the world over. In the Buddhist temples of Japan they will ring 108 times, in the Kremlin the clock bell will sound in Moscow, the bell of St. Stephen’s Cathedral will tolling in Vienna and Big Ben will show out the old year for those in Great Britain. In the evening sometime, most Germans will watch a sketch in English called Dinner for One which describes “the same procedure as every year” of having a party and getting drunk (only the Germans know the comedy). The balls will drop in Times Square and at probably the largest party in the evening, the fireworks at the Copacabana will be seen by over 1 million.
EVS Translations wishes you a Happy New Year and for many things to be better.
