The New Year's Issue, December 2007
Dear Traveler,
Happy (Almost) New Year!
I'd like to wish you a wonderful holiday season and especially thank those of you who have traveled with us. I realize that your vacation time is precious, and I'm delighted you chose to share in Backroads' joyful and enriching world of active travel.
You can count on Backroads however you choose to travel. When it comes to trip leadership, planning and customer service, you keep telling us that nobody does it better. For 2008, we've got an amazing lineup of trips and we hope you'll consider traveling with us in the future.
Continue reading to get the inside scoop on how New Year's is celebrated in our winter destinations. So have a look, click to the Web site for more details—and give us a call when you're ready to sign up or have questions. We look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Tom Hale
Founder and President
P.S. Backroads Makes Your Holiday Gift-Giving Easier! Give the gift of active travel. A Backroads trip is an ideal present for your active friends and family, and is guaranteed to create lifelong memories. Gift certificates for Backroads vacations are available in any dollar amount and can be applied toward any trip. Call 800-GO-ACTIVE (462-2848) for more information.
NEW YEAR'S AROUND THE WORLD
Read on for a taste of how some of our friends around the world will be ringing in 2008. Maybe fortune will soon find you in one of these locales during the height of the festivities. If so,
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Feliz Año Nuevo!
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! Happy New Year!
Today, no other day is observed on so many different dates and in so many different ways. No matter where in the world you live, regardless of your cultural background, there's something about the arrival of the New Year that ignites the desire to celebrate. In China, for instance, thousands of people gather to watch brightly decorated floats and costumed dancers twist and turn through the streets. Mexico enjoys fiestas galore on New Year's Eve, with music, dances and parties lasting all night long. The Vietnamese New Year is marked by traditions dedicated to chasing away evil spirits and welcoming luck and prosperity in the coming year. And, of course, in North America, traditions may be of more recent origins, but the exuberance is no less heartfelt.
NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATIONS IN...
Costa Ricans celebrate Año Neuvo with close friends and family and partake in exuberant
fiestas cívicas (community festivals) that resonate with a distinct Spanish influence. They enjoy El Tope—a parade of high-stepping horses and traditionally dressed riders—and El Destile de Luces, a nighttime procession of trucks decorated with lights. And then there's Las Corridas a la Tica (Costa Rican bullfighting), a popular event that features anywhere from 50 to 150
toreadores improvisados ("improvised bullfighters") who are enclosed in the stadium with a bull, and scramble for safety whenever the animal charges in their direction. A brave toreador will attempt to slap the bull on its hindquarters as it passes by.
Throughout the world, customs associated with the New Year are geared toward bringing good luck in the coming year, and Peruvian traditions are no different. According to the Spanish, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, it's customary to eat 12 grapes—one with every toll. But in Peru, a 13th grape is always eaten to assure good fortune. Another popular tradition is to dress a doll or effigy in old clothes and then burn it, signifying getting rid of the old and welcoming a new start. If you find yourself in Cusco without new ("lucky") clothes to wear on New Year's Day, no problem—just be sure your underwear is the correct color: wear yellow for happiness and luck, red for love or green for money.
Thanks to its rich blend of cultures, Mexico enjoys a multitude of New Year's traditions. As in other Spanish-influenced countries, 12 grapes are eaten as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve. Also at 12 sharp, while making sure not to choke on the grapes, the head of the family cuts the special New Year's bread, which has been baked with a coin or a charm. Whoever receives the slice with the prize will be prosperous in the coming year. Hoping to travel in the new year? Grab your suitcase and take it for a walk around the block or town square. Of course, fireworks are de rigueur in Mexico, and the ensuing New Year's Eve cacophony ensures that New Year's Day—where everyone, even the dog, sleeps in—is the quietest day of the upcoming 364.
Down under in Australia and New Zealand, it's summertime on January 1, so—you guessed it—New Year's festivities are decidedly outdoors-oriented, with barbecues, picnics, campouts and fireworks topping the to-do list.
In Hawaii, New Year arrives with a bang—a seemingly endless barrage of crackling, popping, smoking firecrackers. In fact, on New Year's Day, some streets in Honolulu are strewn ankle-deep with paper from exploded casings! Originally meant to scare off evil spirits, the tradition of fireworks is now simply a spectacle enjoyed by young and old. New Year's is also a time for Hawaiians to enjoy their favorite ancestral foods, like Japanese mochi (sticky rice cake), Portuguese bean soup, Filipino pork adobo (marinated boiled meat) and Chinese dumplings. And in the past 15 years, the Japanese tradition of flower arranging has become widespread, with people placing the pieces at the entrance to a building to bring in luck and ward off evil.
In Thailand, the festival of the New Year is known as Songkran and lasts for 3 days in April—a tradition adopted by the ancient Brahmins in India, who believed the sun reentered Aries and completed its orbit around the earth at this time. The Thai people observe a multitude of traditions, such as washing all Buddha statues and images, and throwing water over one another as a symbol of cleansing and renewal. For luck, they release birds from their cages and fish from their bowls, and for merit, they visit monasteries to pray and offer food to the monks.
For 7 days, beginning on the first morning of the first lunar month, the people of Vietnam enthusiastically celebrate the New Year. Called Tet, it's a joyous family and communal festival signaling the arrival of spring and bringing a welcome break between harvesting and sowing crops. Before the first day of Tet, houses are thoroughly cleaned to wash away any previous bad luck, and homes are adorned with yellow Hoa Mai flowers to encourage happiness in the coming year. At midnight on the Lunar New Year's Eve, the ceremony of Le Tru Tich gets underway, with firecrackers and gongs to welcome the new year with loud happy noises. The Vietnamese believe that their fate and luck for the new year are determined during this 7-day period, so they strive to pay off debts, resolve conflicts and be on their best behavior.
Occurring between January 21 and February 20, the exact date of the Chinese New Year (Yuan Tan) is determined by the lunar calendar. The Chinese usher in the new year by lighting firecrackers (to drive away evil spirits), cleaning their homes and settling all debts. Everyone gives their door a fresh coat of red paint, as red is the symbol of good luck and happiness. Young family members receive lucky money (
ang paus) from relatives, and even while feasts are being prepared, it's customary to put knives away for 24 hours to keep anyone from cutting themselves and thus "cutting" the family's good fortune in the coming year. Streets are filled with colorful and noisy processions with dragon dancers, stilt walkers, decorated floats and acrobats amid clashing cymbals and beating gongs and drums.
Did You Know?
New Year's was first observed in 2000 B.C. in ancient Babylon, coinciding with the spring equinox in mid-March. Did you know that the Babylonians are even credited for coming up with the tradition of New Year's resolutions? Rather than promising to lose weight or quit smoking, the most common resolution was to return borrowed farm implements! Romans also celebrated New Year's during March—that is until Julius Caesar changed the date to January 1 in 46 B.C. (To synchronize his new Julian Calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag out to 445 days.) In medieval Europe, the Catholic Church condemned New Year's festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the Church began to allow religious observances in March to herald new birth and a new season. It has only been since 1582 that Western nations have celebrated New Year's on January 1 in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.
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