Happy New Years!!!!
2013 fast approaches and soon 2012 will be behind us. With anticipation we watch the ball drop with our loved ones and friends hoping 2013 will be more prosperous and less stressful then 2012. We can pray our country improves and make resolutions about our weight or quitting bad habits or saving money instead of needless spending but how did these traditions start?
What the devil are people thinking?
Will we do anything to drink, eat and be merry?
2013 fast approaches and soon 2012 will be behind us. With anticipation we watch the ball drop with our loved ones and friends hoping 2013 will be more prosperous and less stressful then 2012. We can pray our country improves and make resolutions about our weight or quitting bad habits or saving money instead of needless spending but how did these traditions start?
What the devil are people thinking?
Will we do anything to drink, eat and be merry?
"Tonight’s December thirty-first,
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark, it's midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year!"
Something is about to burst.
The clock is crouching, dark and small,
Like a time bomb in the hall.
Hark, it's midnight, children dear.
Duck! Here comes another year!"
Ogden Nash, 1929
(Collected Verse)
(Collected Verse)
The first New York Times Square New Years Eve celebration took place in 1904. It all started when the New York Times opened its downtown office, Times Tower and successfully talked the city into renaming Longacre Square into Times Square. At the time, the building was the focus of the celebration and the owner threw a huge party complete with fireworks. 2 years later the city banned fireworks (which is nicer, ash or confetti?) and Alfred Ochs, owner of New York Times, came up with the iconic New Years Eve ball. Now this lowering of the ball is watched at One Times Square and world wide via TV and Internet and has become a tradition for bringing in the New Year!
Time Square / The Times Tower 1908
One of the first New Years celebrations recorded was around 4000 years ago in ancient Babylon. However, the celebration was usually in March following the vernal equinox (spring equinox) when there was an equal amount of daylight and night. People ate and drank and were merry.
Annus Mirabilis
(latin)
(latin)
a). wonderful year, year of wonders or year of miracles (Dryden)
b). noun / phrase - a remarkable or notable year in history; a year of wonder or miracles,
used to speak hopefully of the future
The Latin phrase Annus Mirabilis was used in the 1666 poem, The Year of Wonders, composed by John Dryden:
$14.95 for a 65 page poem on Kindle.....really?
or how about a scanned copy Free @ Google Books -
"the year was beset by great calamity for England (including the Great Fire of London), but Dryden chose to interpret the absence of greater disaster as miraculous intervention by God, as "666" is the Number of the Beast and the year 1666 was expected by some to be particularly disastrous."
Ahhhh.........if we could all be so positive in our thinking!!!!!
Have a safe and happy New Years Eve and an enjoyable New Years Day!
Annus Mirabilis my friends for 2013
"Mischief Managed" ~ Kelly
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