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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JANUARY 2024 11 DID YOU KNOW? DID YOU KNOW many places around the world begin New Years celebrations on Dec. 31? The celebrations continue into the early hours of Jan. 1. However, the New Year wasn't always celebrated on Jan. 1. The earliest New Year festivities date back about 4,000 years. At that time, the people of ancient Babylon began their new year in what we now call March. They would have an 11-day festival to celebrate the beginning of spring. They would also celebrate the fact that crops were being planted for the coming year. The calendar that we use today is known as the Gregorian calendar. It was introduced 400 years ago by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. He declared once and for all that January 1st should be New Year's Day. Since then, most of the Western world celebrates the start of the year just like you do — on the first day of January. DID YOU KNOW many of us make resolutions for the coming year? We promise ourselves that we'll do something better or differently after Jan. 1. Whether it's quitting a bad habit or getting better grades in school. But where did we get this idea of making resolutions for the new year? It's believed that the ancient Babylonians were the first ones to make New Year resolutions. They made promises to begin the year off right and to earn the approval of their gods. DID YOU KNOW the song that's traditionally sung at midnight on New Year's Eve is called Auld Lang Syne? Its title means "times gone by." The song is an old Scottish tune. But, a Canadian bandleader named Guy Lombardo is responsible for making it a New Year's tradition. He performed the song at midnight at a New Year's Eve party in New York City in 1929. It was eventually broadcast on the radio and TV stations around North America for the New Year. Even though it's the go-to song every New Year's Eve, very few people actually know its lyrics! DO YOU WANT to be one of the first people to welcome the new year? Then you'll want to visit the tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati. It's located in the world's earliest time zone, so it's always the first place on Earth to welcome a new year. As for the last place to ring in the coming year? That title belongs to American Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean.