![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/New-Years-Eve.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIN Chinese communities, firecrackers explode all night long. In Japan, gongs of Buddhist temples reverberate in the air 108 times. In the United States, bells, automobile horns, and whistles break forth at the stroke of midnight. All on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Did you know that all this hullabaloo, though taking various forms, was originally done for one basic reason: to ward off demons and purify people for the coming year? Most people consider the din and racket of New Year\u2019s Eve to be merriment accompanied by elaborate New Year\u2019s celebrations. But what is your view of New Year\u2019s celebrations? Does it agree with the Bible?<\/p>\n
Overdrinking and Overeating<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Mircea Eliade, an internationally known professor of religious history, describes the rite associated with New Year\u2019s Eve as \u201can interlude of Carnival, Saturnalia, reversal of normal order, \u2018orgy.\u2019\u201d So, in many lands, drunken revelries usually result.<\/p>\n In Japan, for example, businessmen use\u00a0bonenkai<\/em>\u00a0(parties to forget the old year) as an excuse to overdrink. These are followed by\u00a0shinnenkai<\/em>\u00a0(New Year\u2019s parties) where more food and drink are served. As a result, \u201ctigers\u201d rage on the late trains during this time of the year. In Japanese, the expression \u201ctigers\u201d alludes to drunkards who are tolerated in this season.<\/p>\n Does not acting in such a manner or even tolerating such disgrace degrade human dignity? The apostle Paul admonished Christians in Rome: \u201cAs in the daytime let us walk decently, not in revelries and drunken bouts .\u00a0.\u00a0. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not be planning ahead for the desires of the flesh.\u201d (Romans 13:13,\u00a014) Can you imagine Jesus organizing a party featuring overdrinking and overeating for his disciples? Hardly!<\/p>\n Perhaps Paul\u2019s reference to \u201crevelries and drunken bouts\u201d included New Year\u2019s festivities. Why? The book\u00a0Christmas Traditions,<\/em>\u00a0by William M.\u00a0Auld, states: \u201cFrom the time of Julius C\u00e6sar [46\u00a0B.C.E.] January\u00a01 marked the beginning of the civil year and was a holiday season.\u201d In addition, Auld reveals that \u201cfor at least three days feasting and merriment prevailed.\u201d<\/p>\n Is It Greed?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In the Orient, people observe the custom of giving special monetary gifts to children during the New Year\u2019s holiday. The Chinese use red packets of money. They believe that the color red will not only bring good luck and prosperity but also exorcise evil. The Japanese, though, use small white envelopes with auspicious signs on them. What do such practices promote?<\/p>\n \u201cI used to look forward to the New Year\u2019s holiday,\u201d recalls a Japanese man, \u201cand my\u00a0<\/span>main concern was how much\u00a0otoshidama<\/em>\u00a0(New Year\u2019s monetary gift) I would get that year.\u201d Could this custom affect children? Yes, answers the column\u00a0Vox Populi, Vox Dei<\/em>\u00a0in the Japanese newspaper\u00a0Asahi Shimbun,<\/em>\u00a0which states: \u201cChildren secretly rank adults in the order of the amount of\u00a0\u2018otoshidama\u2019<\/em>\u00a0received from them.\u201d The amount of money given has kept going up, reaching about 20,000 yen ($130, U.S.) per child in 1985.<\/p>\n Would not this custom promote greed? The adults are eager to have more prestige and the children more money. This is precisely how\u00a0Vine\u2019s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words<\/em>\u00a0defines the word \u201cgreedy\u201d found in\u00a01\u00a0Corinthians chapter\u00a06, namely, \u201c(eager) to have more.\u201d<\/p>\n What sort of parent would stir up greed in his offspring and let them cultivate \u201cthe love of money\u201d? The Bible warns that \u201cthe love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things.\u201d\u200b\u20141\u00a0Timothy 6:10.<\/p>\n But there are even more reasons to be concerned about New Year\u2019s celebrations.<\/p>\n Unsavory Origin?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Suppose you discover a creek with sparkling water, tempting you to drink of it. When you go up the stream, however, you find campers washing their dirty mess-tins and soiled clothes in that water. Would you still want to drink the water and risk contracting a disease? The same can be said of the customs of New Year\u2019s celebrations. Though some celebrations may seem innocent to men, Jehovah, the God of the Bible, has seen their source.<\/p>\n Well, where do we find the earliest record of a New Year\u2019s celebration? \u201cThe earliest description of a New Year festival known to us comes from ancient Mesopotamia,\u201d answers Theodor Gaster in his book\u00a0New Year\u200b\u2014Its History, Customs and Superstitions.<\/em>\u00a0The clay tablets describing the New Year festival record \u201ca program of ceremonies performed at Babylon since the remote days of the second millennium B.C.\u201d<\/p>\n The Babylonian year started about the vernal equinox\u200b\u2014in the month of March. The celebration lasted 11 days and was centered around the worship of Marduk, the city god of Babylon. The vestiges of the New Year festival of Babylon, such as mummers\u2019 plays and fertility rites, are still observed during New Year\u2019s celebrations around the world. The mummers\u2019 parade in the city of Philadelphia (U.S.A.) on New Year\u2019s Day and the fertility festival held in Akita City (Japan) on the 17th of January are but two examples of such relics.<\/p>\n God sees the religious practices originating in Babylon as polluted. He refers to the world empire of false religion, with its customs rooted in ancient Babylon, as \u201cBabylon the Great\u201d and warns: \u201cGet out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.\u201d (Revelation 18:2,\u00a04) Therefore, since the features of New Year\u2019s celebrations betray their pagan origins, people wanting to heed the Bible will steer clear of such festivities. {https:\/\/wol.jw.org\/<\/strong><\/em><\/a>}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IN Chinese communities, firecrackers explode all night long. In Japan, gongs of Buddhist temples reverberate in the air 108 times. In the United States, bells, automobile horns, and whistles break forth at the stroke of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5975,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5973\/revisions\/5975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}