Bringing in the New Year with old traditions

By Lauren Shortnacy
lshortnacy@campcountynow.com

The countdown has begun and the 2014 is well on its way. Just as families and different cultures carry the Christmas traditions, bringing in the New Year is done certain ways by different cultures and individuals and families around Pittsburg.
New Year’s time and traditions vary all around the world.
In Denmark it is a good sign for individuals and families to find their door heaped with a pile of broken dishes.
Old dishes are saved year around to throw them at the home where their friends live on New Year’s Eve. When New Year’s Day rolls around the more dishes throw at your door, is the sign you have many friends.
In the city of Pittsburg, certain traditions are symbolized to help bring luck, money and love within the new upcoming year.
Fran Nichols from Pittsburg makes sure she and her friends get all their laundry done before New Years Day. Co-worker Holly McGraw says this is a tradition Ms. Nichols practices every year.
“She came up to me last year and asked if I had done all my laundry, and I just looked at her confused,” Mrs. McGraw said.
“She said you’re not supposed to wash clothes on New Years because it symbolizes washing away one of your loved ones.”
Pittsburg’s Jessica Galleges, says every year her family throws grapes into the mix of New Year’s traditions.
“We are Spanish, so for New Year’s we eat 12 green grapes the last 12 minutes of the year,” Ms. Galleges said.
“The grapes will bring us good luck, and we eat green ones for good wealth.”
The celebration of the Buddhist New Year is spent with great joy and lots of water.
Buddhist individuals and families spend their New Year squirting water on whomever they meet in the streets, whether it is a friend or a stranger.
Some families in Pittsburg spend their New Year’s shooting gun 12 times to bring in the New Year or popping fireworks.
Pittsburg’s Erika Rios spends her New Years having a cookout with her family and popping fireworks.
In Britain, the custom of ‘first footing’ is practiced. The first male visitor to the house after midnight is supposed to bring good luck.
However the first person must not be blonde, red-haired or a woman, because these “people” usually bring bad luck.
 

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