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48 Things You Didn’t Know About Holidays

Things You Didn’t Know...

About the Holiday Season

Continued from Page 45

The numbers 1 and 2 (diaper alert)
New Year’s Eve brings a lot of revelers
to Times Square every year; a record million
were expected for last year’s festivities. And a
lot of them are wearing diapers. No, we’re not
talking about babies here. We’re talking about
adults. Apparently, due to a lack of toilets, some
adults wear diapers while ringing in the new
year in Times Square.

But please let’s not discuss 1752
Prior to the year 1753, Britain and all
British countries celebrated the New Year on
March 25 (Annunciation Day). Now that part’s
not really difficult to process, but here’s what
might be: In order for 1753 to begin on January
1, 1753, along with every other country in the
world (except Ethiopia; see below), the year
1752 had to literally skip over all the dates from
January 1 through March 24 and also September On Christmas in Ecuador, keep gifts to a pretty much irreversible.
3 and 13. Thus, 1752 only lasted nine months. minimum New Year’s Eve = Stuff Your Face Day in

For the most part, children in Ecuador Spain
Ethiopia has a totally different New Year’s don’t expect to be showered with gifts on In Spain, the New Year’s tradition for
Day holidays. Rather, they tend to get one or two good luck revolves around grapes. If you can
Ethiopia is the only country in the world gifts selected especially for them. And not manage to stuff 12 grapes in your mouth at
that hasn’t adopted the 12-month calendar that is because they’re naughty or nice, but just midnight you’ve achieved good luck for the next
sometimes referred to as the Gregorian calendar. because they’re loved. year.
Ethiopia uses the Coptic Calendar, which has 13
months, of which 12 are comprised of 30 days If it’s New Year’s in Thailand, bring a towel Krampus was the original Bad Santa
each, and a 13th month at the end of the year that Thailand’s New Year celebration, Krampus is a half-goat, half-demon,
has 5 days (or 6 days, if it’s a leap year). The Songkran is a beloved nationwide celebration horrific beast who serves as the anti-Santa in a
result is that Ethiopia celebrates the New Year where water fights go on for days. Literally, number of European countries (including
on September 11. three days. The name comes from Sanskrit and Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and

means transformation. Before water guns ever Hungary), encouraging children to behave
In Korea, New Year’s Day is your birthday were a thing, the Thai people went to their local themselves, lest they be beaten with chains,
In Korea, everyone’s birthday is New temples to engage in spiritual cleansing. They stuffed in a bag, and taken to the underworld.
Year’s Day, regardless of the day anyone was still head to their temples to bathe sacred Krampus is a little less scary in the American
actually born. Plus, the day you’re born, you’re Buddha statues for good luck. But along the movie version, which premiered in 2015 and
considered to be 1 year old, so no matter what way, it’s a party atmosphere as everyone’s blended lots of comedy with the horror.
day you were born, you will be considered 2 dousing everyone else in water.
years old on the first New Year’s Day of your Santa may have had some work done
life. Thus, if you are born on December 31, you Moonpies over Mobile to ring in the new year Don’t call the tabloids, but let’s just say
will be considered 2 years old the next day. Since New Year’s Eve 2008, the city of that Santa has changed quite a bit since his days
Mobile, Alabama, raises a 12-foot tall lighted as the actual person who became St. Nicholas.
In Japan, if it’s Christmas, you’re eating mechanical Moon Pie to celebrate the coming of That guy was a Greek man born in the third
KFC the New Year. Over 50,000 people are on hand century AD, and was a “fiery, wiry, and defiant
It’s a time-honored tradition to eat fried to party the night away as they await the main defender of church doctrine” who nevertheless
chicken on Christmas in Japan. Starting in 1974, event: ringing in the new year when the giant became a patron saint of children around the
Kentucky Fried Chicken got in on the action by Moon Pie drops at midnight, along with a laser year 1200.
asking the people of Japan to show thanks for show and fireworks. Scary at first and sometimes seen
Christmas by enjoying a bucket of KFC. People carrying a rod (which he would “spare not,” as it
in Japan order up their finger-licking-good New Year’s Eve = Toss a Toaster Day in was threatened by parents), St. Nicholas began
Christmas chicken months in advance—to the Johannesberg the transformation in 1822 into the plump, red-
tune of about 3,000,000 orders of KFC each On New Year’s Eve, residents in a small cheeked, jolly, reindeer-sleigh-driving gift giver
year. neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa, that he remains today, thanks to Clement Clark

collect old appliances, carry them up to having described him as such in his poem, The
If it’s Christmas in Peru, consider the first apartment building rooftops and toss them down Night Before Christmas.
rule of Fight Club to the streets far below. By the end of the 1800s, the image of St.
Takanakuy is a festival that is held every Nicholas (say it out loud: Saint Nick Claus…
Christmas Day in the Chumbivilcas Province of New Year’s Eve = Destroy a Dish Day in Santa Claus) had become standardized as a large
Peru. The festival consists of dancing and fist- Denmark adult man, dressed in red with white fur trim,
fighting, whether to settle old conflicts or simply In Denmark, folks ring in the New Year venturing out from the North Pole on a reindeer-
to display their manhood. by shattering dishes across the doors of houses driven sleigh, and benevolently keeping an eye
Here in the Canada and the U.S. we try of their family and friends. This is true in the on children everywhere, making certain they’re
to avoid fighting on the holidays (theoretically), Netherlands too. We assume (or at least, hope) not naughty, but nice.
although it’s not always easy since family that the dishes are ones the New Year’s revelers
members seem to know exactly what to say to don’t mind losing because smashing a dish is (Continued on Page 49)
get under our skin.