How Christmas/New Year Was Celebrated in Nigeria and around the World

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While many people think that only Christians celebrate Christmas because it is the birth of Jesus Christ, almost everyone believes that New Year celebrations is for people of all faiths and religious creeds – because it is a celebration of life and survival unto a new year.

Christians, Muslims, Hinduists, Buddhists, Taoists, idol worshippers, and atheists or agnostics all celebrate New Year, even though the form and manner of celebrations differ from religion to religion, culture to culture, and country to country.

Sometimes, Christmas celebrations extend into New Year festivities and this makes it all the more fun. But the bottom-line is that it is a period of merrymaking and gratitude for being alive to witness a new year.

New Year celebrations in Nigeria
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In Nigeria and in most Africa nations, people travel from the cities back to their villages to celebrate New Year with grandparents and older relatives. Celebrating Christmas and New Year in villages with one’s extended families and folks is an African thing, and this involves a lot of preparations and spending and renovations.

How then do people celebrate New Year festivals? People travel back to villages to see their older folks, and those in villages come to cities to see their brothers and sisters and to enjoy the season in the city. People also buy new clothes or sew new ones to reflect a new appearance; while individual homes and streets get decorated with ribbons and lighted Christmas trees and all sorts of colourful lights.

During New Year celebrations, youths fire firecrackers or “bangers” in the spirit of celebrations, and many youths in several regions organize carnival parties that last all day and night long. The carnivals take the form of street parades and colour processions to parties and music and orgies – starting from New Year Eve till daybreak.

And another thing: food. Both Christmas and New Year celebrations are largely characterized by food in almost all African societies. Families kills goats, sheep, ram, chicken and turkey to make the best of pounded yam, jollof rice, fried rice, vegetable salad, local soups and all types of delicacies. And there is free flow of beer, palm wine, exotic wines, locally brewed drinks, and fruit juices among others.

New Year celebrations all over the world

New Year celebration is fast assuming a new dimension across various regions in the world. Each country and region develops a unique manner of celebrating the new season, and this is characterized by a lot of cultural and traditional festivities.

New York, US: The New Year festivities in New York takes place at New York City where the “big drop” happens at Times Square when the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve. From the fireworks and live music at the Grand Army plaza to the warehouse parties in Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, New Year celebrations in New York is a time of fun, merriment, partying, clubbing, ball drops, and a lot of overnight fun interspersed with eating, great sex, driving around, and running quick businesses on side streets.
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Madrid, Spain: When the clock-tower chimes 12 on New Year’s Eve in Madrid, people flock to the Puerta de Sol square to have fun among other equally interesting places in the city. People go clubbing and others just engage in overnight parties and revelries, while some just sit at home to enjoy seafood, jamon, lamb feast, and cuisines imaginable. But outside, it is a jamboree of loud fireworks, street dancing, street carnivals, and all-night parties.
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Stockholm, Sweden: New Year in Sweden takes place across the 14 islands with waterways in Stockholm. On New Year’s Eve, the streets are filled with families bundled up in thick coats with stashes of glögg (mulled wine), pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies), and bubbly cider. They head up to some of the best spots, such as Monteliusvägen on Södermalm with marvellous views of Mälaren lake, Gamla stan, Riddarholmen and the City Hall on Kungsholmen; Fåfangan with views towards Gamla stan and Djurgården; and Skinnarviksberget with panoramic views of Riddarfjärden and Kungsholmen – then they await fireworks popping across each island, lighting up the winter sky.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina: New Year festivities in Argentina starts at New Year’s Eve with lively nightlife, beach celebrations, meat asado (barbecue) feast, with lots of sparkling cider, red wine, and Fernet (an amoratic bitter) with Coke. At the strike of 12 in the midnight, the Porteño skyline illuminates with a colourful spectacle, and residents (dangerously) shoot fireworks from balconies and terraces. Shouts of “Feliz Año Nuevo” and even fútbol chants ricochet off the concrete buildings.
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Bangkok, Thailand: The original New Year calendar for many Thais is April, so they celebrate New Year festivities in April; but if the people join the Chinese to do the Thai-Chinese celebrations, then that makes two New Year celebrations in one year. It is a time when individuals and families engage in water fight, or just flock to the banks of the Chao Phraya river to watch fireworks in the sky, dance in the streets, and enjoy local foods at any place it is available.
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Tokyo, Japan: The land of the rising sun celebrates New Year in a more introspective and traditional way. There is less of fireworks and large parties as can be observed in the Americas. On New Year’s Eve, the people spend the evening eating buckwheat noodles at home with loved ones, before heading out to join the huge crowds for hatsumode (the first shrine or temple visit of the year) to pray for good fortune and buy lucky charms for the 12 months ahead. At Meiji shrine there is a festival atmosphere, with colourful food stalls and the din of distant ringing bells, as thousands of people patiently shuffle towards the shrine’s inner sanctum from midnight onwards, with festivities (and trains) running until well after dawn.
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Copenhagen, Denmark: Things that dominate New Year’s Eve in Copenhagen: drunk people and fireworks, and drunk people with fireworks. A lot of Copenhageners imagine they will celebrate New Year’s Eve attending a swanky ball with hundreds of interesting and attractive strangers. Others will be gathering in thousands at midnight at the town hall square, armed with rockets, Roman candles and champagne, ready for the party to evolve. This may include hugging and snogging strangers in a state of champagne-induced bliss.
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All across the world, from Sydney in Australia, Cape Town in South Africa, St. Petersburg in Rome, Berlin in Germany, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to Mumbai in India, New Year celebrations begin on New Year’s Eve and is a period of great merrymaking and love in which the whole world is joined together by the spirit of celebrations at nearly the same time, doing the same things globally.
 
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