Even though Christmas is known to be a very popular holiday in the US, New Year’s is a much more timeless celebration.
New Year’s is celebrated to mark the border between the ending previous year and the coming new one. Even though the holiday was created only 4000 years ago, the coming of the new year has always existed and happens every year. Furthermore, Christmas is a very significant holiday, it is not as anticipated as New Year’s.
First, New Year’s is much older, which means it is a much greater holiday than Christmas. According to discoververmilion.org, New Year’s was first celebrated in around 2000 B.C. The celebration happened in late March but it marked the beginning of the celebration of a great holiday. Christmas celebrations began already in this era, which is obviously much time after the first New Year’s celebration.
One of the main reasons why New Year’s Eve is more celebrated is because it does not have ties to religion. Christmas is a religious holiday, which symbolizes the birth of Jesus Christ, and is celebrated mostly by Christians. Even though there are more people who celebrate Christmas in the U.S., on a global scale, the amount of people that celebrate Christmas, as said on ucg.org, is around 2 billion. In comparison, the number of people who celebrate New Year’s is from 5 to 6 billion, according to Rustic Pathways.
As a person coming from Ukraine, a former Commonwealth of Independent States country, I see New Year’s as a much more significant holiday than Christmas. New Year’s is celebrated relatively similar to Christmas in my country. Ukraine used to be a part of the Soviet Union, and after all religious holidays were banned there, the General Secretary of Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, took some attributes of Christmas, including presents, winter spirit, and family gatherings. Nowadays, CIS includes most of the countries that used to be in the Soviet Union, so New Year’s is celebrated the same there.
In my family, the celebration of New Year’s started with making a salad in the shape of the Chinese New Year animal of the upcoming year. After that came making more dishes, including Olivier Salad that was an important attribute in New Year’s celebration. At around an hour before midnight, my family and I were already sitting at the table together, waiting for the New Year’s address by the president. After that we listened to the twelve chimes from the TV. And finally, at midnight, we went outside just like our neighbours and friends did, with the sparkles. When the kids in the family went to sleep, the CIS winter holiday character, Ded Moroz, brought them presents and put them under the Christmas Tree.Those were good times.
Someone might say that New Year’s is different for people all over the world, since different cultures celebrate it at different times of the year. For example, The Chinese New Year’s is celebrated in any time between late January and mid February. Iranian New Year’s is celebrated either on March 20 or 21. And in Nepal, New Year’s is celebrated between April 12 and 15.
Following the logic of this claim, Christmas is also not the same holiday for everyone since it is celebrated in different times and differently by people. For example, Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, while Catholic Christians celebrate it on Dec. 25.
Still, while celebrating the holiday, it matters not when and how it’s celebrated but what it represents. No matter on what date Christmas is celebrated, it still represents the birth of Jesus Christ. No matter what month New Year’s is celebrated, it represents the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one.
Christmas is an important holiday. It is strongly associated with American culture and is a family holiday. However, I encourage you to look at New Year’s a little differently, invite your relatives over and start the new year with your loved ones with presents, sparkles, Olivier Salad and fireworks.
