Something Interesting | "Happy New Year!"
The global adoption of January 1st as the start of a new year, based on the Gregorian or Western calendar, contrasts with the diverse array of new year celebrations rooted in ancient lunar or solar cycles across various cultures. These traditions persist to the present day, with festivities aligning with nearly every month of the Gregorian calendar.
Matariki, the Māori new year, observes the first rising of the Pleiades star cluster in late June or early July, following the lunar calendar. Lunar New Year festivities, celebrated by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and other Asian communities in New Zealand, typically occur in February. March sees the celebration of Nowruz, also known as the Persian New Year, coinciding with the spring equinox in accordance with the solar calendar.
The renowned "Thai water festival," Songkran, known for its lively street water fights in Bangkok, commemorates the sun's transition from Pisces to Aries according to the Buddhist and Hindu calendar. Falling between April 12th and 15th on the Gregorian calendar, this astrological event is marked in various countries including Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, as well as among certain Hindu and Buddhist communities in India and Bangladesh, and select tribes in China. With all these communities being represented in New Zealand, you will not have to look too far to find someone celebrating the new year in April. It may be called Awurudhu in Sri Lanka, Thingyan in Burma, or Navavarsha in Nepal. You may even celebrate the new year in April and be pleasantly surprised that some other cultures share the same tradition.
Explore, celebrate, and relish in the differences and similarities among us.
Once again, happy New Year to you all!
