Celebrating the New Year in different cultures

December is the last month of the year and many of us already have plans for the last night, waiting for 2009 to arrive. How do people in other countries welcome it? Speaking to Sax Magazine, some international students tell what happens on New Year’s Eve in their countries and what they will miss now that they are studying abroad.

Street party
Welcoming the new year in Curaçao is always a crowded affair. Milly-Ann Barhorst, International Business and Management Studies (IBMS) student: “It’s not as cold as in the Netherlands, so everything we do then, we do outside.” Some people go to church and others party together in the streets, playing music. Their gathering is unique: no matter if they are family or not, they visit neighbours by going from door to door and celebrate together.

At the city centre, many people come and watch the fireworks. “There’s a lot more than in Holland but you can only light it from 10 to 2 o’clock midnight.” During New Year’s Eve, they eat Dutch oliebollen.

Not on 1 January
Not following the Gregorian calendar for the common new year, there are countries in which it does not start on 1 January. “We don’t celebrate it then. It’s just normal life”, says Maryam Sabouri, IBMS student from Iran. They do have holidays in January, due to university exams. Their new year is actually the first day of spring and there is no correlation with any religious calendar. During the New Year celebrations, they usually have a party or family gathering where traditional food is provided. Iranian Shaghayegh Mohajer, or rather Sherry, tells: “In the evening, we eat a kind of fish and coconut rice. The day after, we eat noodle soup.”

Let us have a look at South East Asia: Vietnam has its traditional new year, too, a bit later in January. Doan Huu Ha Vinh, Electrical Engineering student, says that the New Year starts on a different date every year. “Normally you get ready for the holiday one week before the New Year. And the New Year’s celebrations commonly last for three days, often spent on visiting your friends and relatives.”

Sherry and Maryam have studied in the Netherlands for some years. They will celebrate with friends here. So will Vinh “with people who like to go out.”

published on Sax Magazine, December 2008

http://www.sax.nu/Portals/5/docs/saxdecember2008.pdf