Also known as Old Year’s Day or Saint Sylvester’s Day, New Year’s Eve is celebrated annually on December 31st.
As we count down the last hours and seconds of the old year, it is a good time to look back at the year and reminisce with friends and family.
In Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, it is tradition to eat 12 grapes during the countdown to midnight symbolizing hopes for the new year. Around the world, eating anything in the form of a circle or ring symbolizes coming full circle and is considered good luck.
As a Christian observance, it is traditional to hold an evening Mass the night before a Holy Day. New Year’s Day in the Roman Catholic Church honors the Virgin Mary. In some countries, St. Sylvester, Pope of the Catholic Church from 314 to 335, is celebrated on New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve has been celebrated for millennia. Honoring the end of one year goes hand in hand with celebrating new beginnings in the new one.
