SHARJAH: With one year ending and a New Year beginning people say goodbye to the year that has passed with all its happy and sad moments. The New Year is usually welcomed by everyone by wishing each other a happy and better year ahead and writing an endless list of New Year resolutions while hoping they will fulfil it.

Some choose to celebrate the New Year with their families and loved ones and attend one of the various New Year’s Eve parties. Others who lost their loved ones during the year choose to spend the day in solace and sad silence while remembering and badly missing them and wishing they were with them celebrating the New Year.

The New Year is a long awaited day where people indulge in various entertainment activities with family and friends, with some choosing to spend the memorable New Year’s eve by attending any of the fireworks celebrations. They pray that the year welcomed will be as bright as the colours of the fireworks that herald optimism and happiness in their lives and that there should not be any boundaries blocking them from accomplishing their dreams.

In various cultures the New Year is celebrated differently with everyone texting and calling each other to wish a happy and better year. Some have the tradition of breaking a vase with the past year engraved on it. Others have the ritual of welcoming the very first moment of the New Year by offering prayers to God and hoping that the welcomed year will be a happy, peaceful year with no death or loss of dear ones and more justice, respect and love prevailing.

Dr Tarundeep Talwar from India said that she welcomes the New Year by going to the temple or any religious place to seek God’s blessing while praying it will be a happy and prosperous year for everyone.

“On New Year’s Eve we cook any popular food such as biryani and organise family gatherings to celebrate the New Year with full hope that it will be a better year for everyone.”

Giving insight on New Year practices, Marie Patricia Mata from the Philippines said that on New Year’s Eve 12 round fruits are served to represent the 12 months of the year for prosperity.

“We serve a noodle dish for long life and palitan which is a native, glutinous rice dessert with coconut meat and sugar for prosperity. We believe when we boil this the rising of the rice will mean good life. We do not serve poultry dishes because chickens scratch the ground and the floor for money which is similar to begging and that’s why we don’t serve chicken. We serve lots of sweets as sweets mean a happy life and ensure to have the dinner at midnight which is the routine of the family.”

Dr Rola AR Mahmood from Egypt said that she makes preparations in advance to welcome the New Year by bringing a Christmas tree home and decorating it with her children to make them feel excited about welcoming a new year. She makes sure the tree is brightly lit as “it embodies our happiness and optimism of welcoming a new year with full energy and positivity.

“We are always having a ritual of serving white sweets made of rice and milk and sugar as it means a pain-free year is welcomed. We break any vase or any unwanted substance with the year gone by written or engraved on it while saying goodbye to it with all its accomplishments and agony while aspiring and hoping that the New Year will be a brighter, peaceful year for everyone.”