As all Thammasat University students wish each other a happy new year, it is worth remembering that the TU Library collection includes a number of books and recordings about international new year celebrations.
These include musical recordings and DVDs of New Year concerts in Vienna, Austria, which may be listened to and viewed at the Rewat Buddhinan Audiovisual Center on the U2 Level of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.
As TU students know, most nations in Western Europe have adopted 1 January as New Year’s Day.
In Asia, Japanese New Year is celebrated on 1 January, which is also the day that the solar New Year’s Day is commemorated in South Korea.
Koreans celebrate New Year’s Day by preparing food for their ancestors’ spirits, visiting ancestors’ graves, and playing Korean games such as Yunnori with families.
Yut Nori, also known as Yunnori, Nyout, and Yoot, is a traditional board game played in Korea, especially during Korean New Year.
Young children show respect to their parents, grandparents, relatives, and other elders by bowing down in a traditional way and are given good wishes and some money by the elders. Families also enjoy the New Year by counting down to midnight on New Year’s Eve on 31 December.
North Koreans celebrate the New Year’s Day holiday on the first day of the solar calendar, 1 January. Solar New Year’s Day, called Seollal, is a major holiday in North Korea.
As all TU students also know, Chinese New Year is usually marked between 20 January and 20 February. The holiday is celebrated with food, families, lucky money (usually in a red envelope), and many other red things for good luck. Lion and dragon dances, drums, fireworks, firecrackers, and other types of entertainment fill the streets on this day. January 1 is also a legal holiday in China, but it is not as extensive a ceremony as the traditional Chinese New Year.
In Southeast Asia, Cambodian New Year (Chaul Chnam Thmey) is celebrated on 13 April or 14 April. There are three days for the Khmer New Year: the first day is called “Moha Songkran”, the second is called “Virak Wanabat” and the final day is called “Virak Loeurng Sak”. During these periods, Cambodians often go to the pagoda or play traditional games. Phnom Penh is usually quiet during Khmer New Year as most of the Cambodians prefer spending it at their respective hometowns.
Thingyan, the new year’s celebrations in Myanmar, typically begin on 13 April but the actual New Year’s day falls on 17 April in the 21st century.
Vietnamese New Year more commonly known by its shortened name Tết or “Vietnamese Lunar New Year”, is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Vietnam. The holiday normally falls between 20 January and 20 February. It is the Vietnamese New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the Chinese calendar.
In South Asia, Christians in India celebrate 1 January as the New Year.
In Hinduism, different regional cultures celebrate the new year at different times of the year. In Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Nepal, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana, Andra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu households the new year is usually commemorated on 14 April or 15 April. Elsewhere in northern/central India, 23–24 March is considered the new year, which is celebrated by paying respect to family elders and by seeking their blessings. They also exchange tokens of good wishes for a healthy and prosperous year ahead.
The first day of the Bengali Calendar is celebrated on 14 April as a national holiday in Bangladesh, and on 14 or 15 April in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and part of Assam by people of Bengali heritage.
The Sikh New Year is celebrated on 14 March of the Western calendar.
Sinhalese New Year is celebrated in Sri Lankan culture between 13 and 14 April, as is Tamil New Year.
Telugu New Year (Ugadi) and Kannada New Year (Yugadi) is generally celebrated in March and occasionally in April.
New Year’s Thoughts
Here are some observations about the new year by authors, most of whom are represented in the TU Library collection:
I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. – Anaïs Nin
New Year’s Day is everyone’s birthday. – Charles Lamb
New Year’s Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time. – James Agate
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. – G.K. Chesterton
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever. – Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman’s Journal
And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910
A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I’ve played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
– Edgar Guest
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)