Kiss with the first comer and lights in the sky: American New Year traditions through the eyes of an immigrant
'31.12.2020'
You probably already understood that the main holiday for Americans is Christmas. They buy a Christmas tree for this day and after that they immediately throw it away, they have a turkey dinner with their family on a holiday, Santa brings presents for Christmas and so on. But it would be wrong to decide that Americans do not celebrate New Year at all. Celebrating, also on a large scale.
The most popular and beloved Christmas traditions of Americans:
Countdown the seconds with a crystal ball in Times Square
Up to a million people gather in and around Time Square to watch the launch of a 5,5-ton illuminated crystal ball on a 21-meter pillar and count the seconds to New Years.
Tourists and New Yorkers hope that the burden of problems will fall from their shoulders in the new year, just like this ball, and they are free and cheerful, albeit a little drunk, will enter a beautiful new life with a light gait, where they will become successful, rich. loved and happy, like the people on the huge led advertisements that hang around the buildings around Times Square like refrigerator magnets.
The tradition that began in 1907 is so popular that it is broadcast to the whole world - you can join too! However, my New York friends will bypass the center at this time - it's too crowded there.
Kiss the first comer
It is said that the tradition of kissing the first person you meet, when the hand of the clock crosses past midnight, has its roots in German and English folklore. In the old days, on New Year's Eve, masquerades were organized, symbolizing the Sabbath of evil spirits, and a kiss dispelled the spell and removed curses.
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Usually, of course, the first person you meet is your partner with whom you celebrate the New Year. However, if you are hoping to take advantage of this omen and get to know an American or American woman, be very careful! First, if you are a guy and a girl does not honor this tradition, you can get a lawsuit for sexual harassment. And secondly, even if you know that where you celebrate the New Year, this tradition is honored, do not be so sure that a person of the opposite sex will offer you a kiss, because the USA is a modern country.
Eat black-eyed beans
Black-eyed beans or black-eyed peas are a type of legume that looks like white beans with black dots. In the southern states, eating black-eyed beans on the table on New Year's Eve is believed to bring wealth.
They are usually cooked with pork and eaten with chili sauce and mustard. Peas, because they swell during cooking, therefore symbolize an increase in income, and greens - money, a pig, oddly enough, symbolizes movement forward, because she is always in search of food.
Arrange fireworks
What New Year is without pyrotechnics? Fireworks are one of America's favorite New Year traditions. To launch the lights, they choose picturesque locations in large metropolitan areas in order to create a mesmerizing spectacle both for the people gathered there, and for photos and videos.
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Fireworks are very popular in San Francisco against the background of the Golden Gate Bridge, in Dallas, in Las Vegas and in Orlando, at the world famous Disneyland.
Make a New Year's promise to themselves
Unlike our traditions, it is customary for Americans not to ask for preferences from the Almighty for the next year, but on the contrary, to make promises to themselves to do something or become better in something: quit smoking, become a vegan, do yoga, learn Russian (and why not?), run a marathon, record an album of songs with a guitar of your own composition, propose to your beloved, build a model of a railway in the basement - in general, they promise themselves everything that they have enough courage and perseverance to do.
Original column published on the blog. "Between New York and Boston" on Yandex Zen
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