Answers to last issue’s puzzles on page 19
Fun Facts
spirit of winter, who brought gifts on New Year’s and placed them under the “New Year tree”
spent time dancing, feasting and having a good time.
10. On New Year’s Day in Akita, Japan there is a tradition 5. On New Year’s Day in 1976, a man named Danny where men dress as mountain demons, get drunk, and terFinegood changed the Hollywood sign to “Hollyweed” as a rorize children for being lazy or disobeying their parents. The New Year’s Edition college prank in order to celebrate the decriminalization of 1. The earliest known New Year celebrations were in Mes- marijuana and got an “A” for it. 11. After the French revolution, France briefly used a new opotamia and date back to 2000 BC. The early Romans calendar based on a decimal system; 10 days a week, 10 used March 1 as New Year’s Day. Other cultures used the 6. The first ball dropping celebration atop One Times hours a day, 100 minutes per hour and 100 seconds per Square was held on December 31, 1907. autumn equinox or the winter solstice to mark the new minute, and starting at Year 1. year. 7. In 1942 and 1943 the ball lowering was suspended due 12. The Reykjavik (capital of Iceland) fireworks display on to the wartime dimout. The crowds who still gathered in 2. 1582 - The Gregorian calendar, which marks January New Year’s Eve is one of the largest in the world, and most Times Square celebrated with a minute of silence followed fireworks sales fund rescue operations in the country. 1 as the new year, is adopted by the Roman Catholic by chimes ringing out from an amplifier truck parked at Church. One Times Square. 13. Thought to have been derived from a Jewish New 3.In an effort to reduce drunk driving, every New Year’s Year (Rosh Hashanah) custom, Americans in the South 8. The original New Year’s Eve Ball weighed 700 pounds annually gobble black-eyed peas. Most Southerners (and Eve the AAA will tow your car and give you a lift home and was five feet in diameter. It was made of iron and for free, even if you’re not a member (not available in all many historians) maintain the tradition began to take hold wood and was decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs. states) stateside when the first Shepari Jews moved to Georgia in the 1730s. By the end of the Civil War, the Rosh 9. The ancient Hawaiian New Year was four months long, Hashanah tradition had evolved into a widespread practice 4. When religion was suppressed in Soviet Russia, Santa/ war was forbidden, people stopped working, and the people in the South, enjoyed by both Jews and gentiles. St. Nick was replaced with Grandfather Frost, called the | FRESNOFLYER.COM |
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