NEW YEAR’S
Many cities have canceled or modified their New Year’s Eve celebrations due to the pandemic, but here are a few fun facts to help bring in the new year.
REDUCE, REUSE
CALENDARS
There are only 14 possible calendars configurations, which makes calendars reusable every few years. If you have a 2010, 1999 or 1993 calendar in your box of memorabilia, you’re good to go for 2021. Since 2020 was a leap year, the next time your 2020 calendar will be usable again is in 2048.
SOURCE: whencanireusethiscalendar.com
THE BALL DROP
TIMES SQUARE
This year Times Square will be inaccessible to the public on New Year’s Eve. The annual tradition of gathering in Times Square for New Year's started as a party to celebrate the opening of the New York Times building in 1904. Over 200,000 people attended. The first ball dropped in 1907 after there was a fireworks ban due to burning embers falling on the crowd in previous years. Instead of fireworks, a 700-pound ball made of iron and wood and embellished with 25-watt bulbs was lowered down a flagpole.
TOO MUCH BUBBLY
CHAMPAGNE & ALCOHOL
Although Americans seem to find a reason to drink
for every holiday, certain celebratory events are
boozier than others. Forty-seven percent of men and
40 percent of women admitted to binge drinking to
ring in the New Year.
New Year’s Eve is the holiday with the highest percentage of both men and women reporting a previous blackout while celebrating the beginning of a new year.
Average number of drinks consumed on New Year’s Eve:
SOURCE: Alcohol.org
THE YEAR BEGINS WHEN?
The earliest recorded New Year’s festivities date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. Celebrated in what’s today March or April, the festival honored their supreme god, Marduk, and marked the beginning of the growing season. For the general population, the beginning of the festival meant a week of holidays and celebrations.
SOURCE: infoplease.com; ancient-origins.net
I DO RESOLVE...
RESOLUTIONS
According to a December, 2020 poll, 31% of adults will be making a New Year’s resolution for the upcoming year, with ‘doing more exercise’ topping the list (50%). Americans are pretty good at keeping their resolutions. Among those who made a resolution for 2020, 35% say they kept all of their resolutions and 49% kept some of them.
SOURCE: yougov survey
The highest box office sales draw on a New Year's weekend is held by what film?
Avatar
Titanic
King Kong
Star Wars: Force Awakens
CORRECT!
Star Wars: Force Awakens
WRONG!
SOURCE: the-numbers.com
Milton Berle
J. Edgar Hoover
George Sanders
Eleanor Roosevelt
CORRECT!
SOURCE: holidappy.com
WRONG!
John Keats
Robert Burns
Lord Byron
Dr. Seuss
CORRECT!
WRONG!
Car sale ads with drunks
CORRECT!
WRONG!
Emperor Hirohito
Joseph Stalin
Gandhi
Clark Gable
CORRECT!
WRONG!
Be at death’s door
CORRECT!
WRONG!
TRIVIA
SOURCE: Good Housekeeping; International Business Times
Percentage who have blacked out (drank enough to have difficulty recalling events) on New Year’s Eve:
5.1
Men
3.7
Women
Men
Women
27%
17%
Most common resolutions for 2021:
50%
48%
44%
39%
21%
Exercise more
Lose weight
Save more money
Improve diet
Pursue a career ambition
Of those who made a resolution last year, did you keep all or part of it?
Yes
84%
No
16%
JANUARY NOT ALWAYS THE FIRST MONTH
The first time that January 1st was celebrated as the beginning of a new year was in 153 B.C. when the Romans moved the first month of their calendar back to January to coincide with elections of the two highest ranking Republic positions. But this new year date was not always widely observed.
Romans would celebrate January 1st by offering sacrifices to Janus in the hope of gaining good fortune for the New Year, decorating their homes and attending raucous parties. This day was seen as setting the stage for the next 12 months, and it was common for friends and neighbors to make a positive start to the year by exchanging well wishes and gifts with one another.
HAPPY
NEW
YEAR!
HAPPY
NEW
YEAR!
In 46 B.C. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar introduced a solar-based calendar which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar. He instituted January 1st as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of change and beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. This idea became tied to the concept of transition from one year to the next.
What celebrity, known for their convincing portrayals of the opposite sex, was born January 1, 1895?
The lyrics of the New Years song “Auld Lang Syne” began as a poem written by whom?
On January 1, 1971, what kind of commercials were banned from American television?
According to southern U.S. beliefs,
to make a New Year's resolution stick, one must do what while making it?
SOURCE: the-numbers.com
Star Wars: Force Awakens
J. Edgar Hoover
SOURCE: holidappy.com
J. Edgar Hoover
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Robert Burns
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Robert Burns
Ads for cigarettes
Ads for regular gasoline
Anti-free labor union ads
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Ads for cigarettes
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Ads for cigarettes
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Be at death’s door
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Be at death’s door
Be beaten with a stick
Be engaged or widowed
Be inside a church
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Emperor Hirohito
Much to the dismay of millions, on January 1, 1945, this person announced they were not a god. Who was it?
SOURCE: holidappy.com
Emperor Hirohito
Avatar
Titanic
King Kong
Star Wars: Force Awakens
CORRECT!
SOURCE: the-numbers.com
Star Wars: Force Awakens
WRONG!
The highest box office sales draw on a New Year's weekend is held by what film?
Milton Berle
J. Edgar Hoover
George Sanders
Eleanor Roosevelt
CORRECT!
SOURCE: holidappy.com
WRONG!
John Keats
Robert Burns
Lord Byron
Dr. Seuss
CORRECT!
WRONG!
Car sale ads with drunks
CORRECT!
WRONG!
Be at death’s door
CORRECT!
WRONG!
Emperor Hirohito
Joseph Stalin
Gandhi
Clark Gable
CORRECT!
WRONG!
