14 New Year’s Facts for 2014

Tis the day to sit back and attempt (notice I said attempt) to relax after everyone was up late last night. We hope you had a lot of fun ringing in the new year!

We thought we would celebrate the first day of 2014 with a few New Year’s facts:

• New Year is the oldest of all holidays.  It was first observed in ancient Babylon as many as 4000 years ago.
• In 45 B.C., New Year’s Day was celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history under the Julian calendar.
• New Years Day is now celebrated in the US and Europe on January 1 of the Gregorian calendar
• Geographically, the world will be half way into 2014 when the time zone GMT or UTC enters the New Year. This time zone includes the United Kingdom, Ireland, Morocco, Iceland, and Western Sahara.
• About half of the world’s population will have begun 2014 at UTC+5:30 when India enters the New Year.
• Pacific Ocean Islanders Kiritimati, Christmas Island and Kiribati will enter 2014 first, while American Samoa, Niue, and the United States Minor Outlying Islands will be the last to celebrate the New Year.
• Father Time is the mascot of New Year’s Eve
• The first Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve aired in 1972
• The traditional New Year’s song,  ‘Auld Lang Syne’, is a Scottish song.  It was written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s and literally means “old long ago.”
• The tradition of making New Year resolution dates back to the early Babylonians.
• The first Time Square New Year’s Eve Ball, in 1907, was a 700-pound iron and wood ball adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs.
• Today’s Time Square New Year’s Eve Ball weighs 11,875 pounds, is 12 feet in diameter and is bedazzled with 2,668 Waterford crystals.
• The first Rose Bowl Parade was held in 1886
• More vehicles are stolen on New Year’s Day than any other holiday throughout the year so keep an eye on your vehicle!

There you have it….14 New Year’s Facts for 2014.  Don’t you feel a little smarter starting off this year?