Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each new year for at least four millennia. Today, most New Year’s festivities begin on December 31 (New Year’s Eve), the last day of the Gregorian calendar, and continue into the early hours of January 1 (New Year’s Day). Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New Year’s foods, making resolutions for the new year, and watching fireworks displays. However, there are also other notable New Years' traditions that are not on January 1st. These New Year's celebrations occur according to the Lunar Calendar, which is more accurate than our current calendar:

How the Northwest Native Americans Celebrate their New Year:
The start of the New Year is honored by many Native Americans, although many tribes have selected different dates as the last day of the year. In North American Indigenous cultures, the New Year is at the end of January or the first part of February, based on constellations and moon phases. The timing of the New Year is usually in conjunction with Winter Solstice commemorations.

Indian New Year:
There are 10 different dates for New Year's in India depending upon where you live. We will focus on the Hindu New Year. Diwali is a festival that celebrates the beginning of the Hindu New Year. Also called the Festival of Lights or Deepavali, it takes place on the 15th day of the Hindu month of Kartika. This falls sometime during October or November. The festival lasts five days and is most commonly celebrated in India and other locations with Hindu communities. However, India has many New Years.

Jewish New Year:
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is one of Judaism’s holiest days. Meaning “head of the year” or “first of the year,” the festival begins on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, which falls during September or October. Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of the world and marks the beginning of the Days of Awe, a 10-day period of introspection and repentance that culminates in the Yom Kippur holiday, also known as the Day of Atonement. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the two “High Holy Days” in the Jewish religion.

Chinese New Year:
Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China. Tied to the Chinese lunar calendar, the holiday was traditionally a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It was also a time to bring the family together for feasting. With the popular adoption of the Western calendar in 1912, the Chinese joined in celebrating January 1 as New Year’s Day. China, however, continues to celebrate Chinese New Year with the traditional greeting, “Kung hei fat choi.”

We will begin by students sharing what their family does for the holiday so that we can learn a little about each other. We then watch a short video about the Gregorian calendar New Year giving a nice introduction. After the video, I give a lecture all about the holiday including its ancient past, how it came to be, and its present. I will also discuss a few Lunar Calendar New Year's Celebration as mentioned above along with a few more videos. I'll ask some questions related to the lecture and students will give their responses. Students may want to scribble down some notes during my lecture. At the end, we will play a fun Kahoot!

By learning about holidays, we learn more about different cultures and especially history in a secular mode.