Happy New Year

Have you ever wondered about all the weird traditions and symbols on the New Year? Like New Years Resolutions? Or using a baby as a symbol for the new year? Well, look no fearther.

The New Years Resolutions began by the ancient Babylonians. Popular mordern day resolutions are to quit smoking or losing weight. But the early Babylonians most popular resolutions was to return borrowed farm equipment.

The tradition of using a baby started by the Greece around 600 B.C. It was their was to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus. By parading the baby in a basket to represent the rebirth of their god as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

Traditionaly, new year foods are supposed to bring you good luck. Many clutures believe that circular food can bring you good luck because it means ``coming full circle``, completing years cycle. The Dutch believed that eating doughnuts will bring you good luck on new years.

Another very common tradition is champaign toasting at midnight to welcome in the new year. This tradition started back with the Greece and Romans, who would pour wine to those attending a religious function. The host would drink the wine first to make sure it was not poisoned. It was fairly common to poison the wine because that way you could get rid of your enemies.

Toasting got its name from a kind of weird tradition. Back at the time of Romans and Greece the wine was not as pure as it is today, so what they would do is place a square of toast to absorb the acidity. The toast that was floted in the wine would be eaten by the last person who drank the wine. Eventually, the act of drinking in unison was called a toast, from the act of putting a square of toast in the wine.

These are some of the weird tradition and how they originated. Its kind of cool how somethings we did now were done by the Romans and Greece. Sometimes we don`t even think about where these traditions come from. We should think about it some times and the people long ago because without them our New Year will not be the same.