“Celebrating the start of the New Year has been practiced for at least four thousand years. The following article reviews the history, significance, and common traditions of this festive, and meaningful holiday.” History.com
ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key
The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon.
Excerpt: The History of New Year’s Celebration–History.com
“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).
The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. Throughout antiquity, civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event.
New Year Celebration, Tendillas Square, Spain
Revelers often enjoy meals and snacks thought to bestow good luck for the coming year. In Spain and several other Spanish-speaking countries, people bolt down a dozen grapes-symbolizing their hopes for the months ahead-right before midnight.
In many parts of the world, traditional New Year’s dishes feature legumes, which are thought to resemble coins and herald future financial success; examples include lentils in Italy and black-eyed peas in the United States. Because pigs represent progress and prosperity in some cultures, pork appears on the New Year’s Eve table in Cuba, Austria, Hungary, Portugal and other countries.
New Year Celebration, Vienna, Austria.
In Sweden, it is believed that whoever gets that one peeled almond hidden inside the rice pudding at Christmas will get married within a year. the scoop.
In Sweden and Norway, meanwhile, rice pudding with an almond hidden inside is served on New Year’s Eve; it is said that whoever finds the nut can expect 12 months of good fortune.
The London Eye on the River Thames during New Year fireworks and celebrations. The Telegraph.
Other customs that are common worldwide include watching fireworks and singing songs to welcome the new year, including the ever-popular “Auld Lang Syne” in many English-speaking countries. The practice of making resolutions for the new year is thought to have first caught on among the ancient Babylonians, who made promises in order to earn the favor of the gods and start the year off on the right foot. (They would reportedly vow to pay off debts and return borrowed farm equipment.)
Chinese New Year, Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Photo-NBC News
New Year Celebration New York City’s Times Square. Photo- C. Morris.
In the United States, the most iconic New Year’s tradition is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City‘s Times Square at the stroke of midnight…Over time, the ball itself has ballooned from a 400-pound iron-and-wood orb to a brightly patterned sphere 12 feet in diameter and weighing in at nearly 12,000 pounds.”
WISHING EVERYONE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post
NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.
Level: Intermediate -Advanced
Language Skills: reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary and grammar activities are included.
Time: approximately 2 hours.
Materials: Student handouts (from this lesson) access to news article.
Objective: Students will read and discuss the article about New Year’s celebrations with a focus on improving reading comprehension and learning new vocabulary. At the end of the lesson students will express their personal views on the topic through group work and writing.
I. Pre-Reading Task
Prediction: Analyze headings and photos.
Directions: Read the title of the post, and article. Analyze the photo(s) to see if you can predict what information the article will discuss. Then based on this information, make a list of ideas, words and phrases that might be in the article.
The K-W-L Chart
Directions: Have students use the KWL chart to list the information they already know about New Year’s celebrations. Later in the Post- Reading segment of the lesson, students can fill in what they’ve learned about the topic.
Pre-reading chart by J. Swann
II. While Reading Activities
Vocabulary: Word Inference
Directions: Students are to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. They may use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.
- 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 31st.
- New Year’s Eve is the last day of the Gregorian calendar.
- Common traditions include attending parties, and eating special New Year’s foods.
- Other traditions include making resolutions for the new year and watching fireworks displays.
- The earliest recorded festivities date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon.
- Throughout antiquity, civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars.
- The calendars would pin the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event.
- In Egypt the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius.
- The first day of the Chinese new year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice.
Vocabulary Organizer by Against the Odds
Reading Comprehension
True /False/NA-Statements
Directions: Review the following statements from the reading. If a statement is true they mark it T. If the statement is not applicable, they mark it NA. If the statement is false they mark it F and provide the correct answer.
- Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each new year for at least five millennia.
- Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New Year’s foods, making resolutions for the new year and watching fireworks displays
- The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Rome.
- The first day of the Chinese new year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice.
- In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 (the anniversary of Jesus’ birth).
- In many countries, New Year’s celebrations begin on the evening of December 3 and continue into the early hours of January 1.
- Revelers often eat specific foods that are believed to bring good crops for the coming year.
- Grapes in Spain, round fruits in the Philippines, suckling pig in Austria, soba noodles in Japan are all considered good-luck food.
- Other customs that are common in the U.S. include making resolutions.
- In the United States, the most iconic New Year’s tradition is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City‘s Times Square at the stroke of midnight.
III Grammar Focus
Identifying Parts of Speech: Nouns
Directions: Identify the nouns in the following paragraph, then use the words to write a short paragraph about \ New Year celebrations in the United States.
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.
III. Post Reading Tasks
Reading Comprehension Check
WH-How Questions format
Directions: use the WH-question format to discuss or to write the main points from the article.
Who or What is the article about?
Where does the action/event take place?
When does the action/event take place?
Why did the action/event occur?
How did the action/event occur?
K-W-L Chart
Directions: Have students fill in the last column of the KWL chart if they used one in the pre-reading segment of this lesson.
Discussion/Writing Exercise
Directions: Place students in groups and have them answer the following questions. Afterwards, have the groups share their thoughts as a class. To reinforce the ideas, students can write an essay on one of the following discussion topics.
- The article states, “ 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.”
- Provide a description of when and how the New Year is celebrated in your country. If you live in the U.S. then discuss how you celebrate the New Year.
- Discuss the types of foods you like to eat on New Year’s Day and the significance of the food.
- A big New Year tradition in the U.S. is making resolutions. Discuss a few of your own resolutions and why you are making them.
- What new ideas have you learned from this article? Discuss them with group members and the class.