• The oldest of all holidays, the new year was originally celebrated with the first New Moon, on the first day of spring.
• Fire crackers are set off to frighten off evil spirits on New Year's Day in China.
• Small oil lights are lit all along the roofs of buildings in western India as part of their New Year celebration.
• The ancient Greeks were the first to use a baby to signify the New Year; they paraded around in the streets with a baby in a basket.
• To burn up the old year and roll in the new one, people in some areas of Scotland barrels of tar are set afire and rolled down the streets.
• Traditional New Year foods held great significance years ago; anything with a round shape symbolized completing a year's cycle, and was thought to bring good luck.
• Greek children leave their shoes by the fireplace on New Year's Day, hoping Saint Basil will come and fill their shoes with gifts!
• Ancient Babylonian New Year celebrations lasted eleven days; each day was celebrated in a different way.
• The tradition of making a New Year's resolution began in ancient Babylon.
• In many parts of the United States, people celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas accompanied by ham; peas and other legumes are thought to bring good luck, and ham symbolizes prosperity.
• The Tournament of Roses Parades can be dated back to 1886, when members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers to celebrate the ripening of California's fruit crop.
• In some parts of Switzerland and Austria, people dress up to celebrate Saint Sylvester's Eve as part of their New Year's Day celebration.
• In China, New Year's Day is celebrated with the Festival of Lanterns. Crowds of people gather in the streets with their lanterns - used to light the way to the New Year.
• As part of Scottish folklore, if the first person to enter your house during the New Year is a man with dark hair bearing a gift, you will be blessed with good luck.
• The ancient Egyptians celebrated the New Year at the time the Nile River flooded - near the end of September - which enabled the people to grow crops.
• The Celts called their New Year festival Samhain, meaning summer's end.
• To keep out evil spirits, some Japanese hang a rope of straw across the front of their house on New Year's Day.
• The people in northern India wear flowers on New Year's Day; a yellow flower, to them, is the color of spring.
• In ancient Egypt, New Year was celebrated with singing, dancing, and feasting for an entire month.
• A traditional polar bear swim event is held New Year's Eve in British Columbia, Canada; people don bathing suits and plunge into the icy cold water surrounding Vancouver.
• Vietnamese believe that a god resides in every home, and on New Year's Day the god makes a trek into heaven.
• New Year's Day is also the Festival of Saint Basil in Greece.
• The Persians put grains of wheat or barley in a dish to grow a few weeks before their New Year's Day in March, so that roots would be produced in time for the celebration - reminding them of new life.
• The Jewish New Year is called Rosh Hashanah. At this holy time, people consider past mistakes; commitments are made to behave and do things better in the future.
• The New Year festival of the Celts is called Samhain, which takes place at the end of October. Mistletoe is gathered to keep the ghosts of the dead from returning to haunt the living.
• In early Roman days, people believed that the Roman god, Janus, had two heads; he looked back at the last year, and forward to the New Year.
• To kick off the New Year in Japan, some people begin to laugh, which is supposed to bring them happiness and good luck in the New Year.
• People in central India display orange flags from buildings on New Year's Day.
• Part of the Jewish New Year celebration includes special religious services where an instrument called a shofar, made from a ram's horn, is played; fruit is eaten to remind the people of harvest time.
• Hindus pay tribute to their goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, as part of their New Year celebration.

Regardless of where you live or how you celebrate New Year's Day, why not send a unique New Year's greeting card to that special someone to let them know you are thinking about them.