The whole range of celebration of the New Year’s Day basically stems from the various ways ancient societies used to greet the new harvest seasons. In fact, it is the number of harvests, whether of fruit or grain, which determined how many New Years were observed. The origins of the customs that we think of as peculiarly associated with the celebration of the New Year, took roots in the ways the ancient peoples regarded the New Year.
Symbolically, New Year signifies a renewal of life. Hence, the spirit of celebration for the regeneration, while discarding the old and worn out. The customs and practices, though modified through the centuries, have still their distinctive strains in the ways we welcome each onrushing year.
It was the Dutch, in their New Amsterdam settlement at mid-17th century, who originated the modern American New Year celebration.
