What is Baby New Year? Baby New Year is a popular personication of the start of the new year, symbolizing the "rebirth" of the past year into the next. Usuay a male infant wearing nothing else than a diaper, a top hat and a sash (which sometimes shows the year he is representing), Baby New Year is often paired with another mythical gure caed "Father Time" — an elderly man carrying a scythe and hourglass who's depicted as the personication of passing time. As t he story goes, Baby New Year wi age and eventuay grow into Father Time by the end of the year in December, at which time he wi then turn over his timekeeping duties — and impart his aged wisdom — to the next Baby New Year born on January 1.

How did Baby New Year start? According to H istory.com, the use of a baby as a representation of the new year actuay has its roots as far back as 600 B.C. in ancient Greece. In celebrating the annual rebirth of Dionysus — the god of wine and fertility — with each new year, the Greeks had a tradition of parading around an infant in a basket throughout town to represent the god's birth. E arly Christians then also began using the image of a baby to celebrate the new year, with the infant often depicting the religious gure of Baby Jesus.

Baby New Year then became secularized by newspaper cartoonists in the 19th century, most notably with a series of covers in the T he Saturday Evening Post b y Joseph Christian Leyendecker from 1907 to 1943. These covers featured a dierent drawing of a baby on every annual rst-of-the-year issue, with each character often representing the spirit of that specic year.

What are some modern examples of Baby New Year? Since its historical beginnings in ancient Greece, Baby New Year has appeared in countless instances of modern pop culture throughout the years. Most notably, the infant was featured in the 1976 holiday special R udolph's Shiny New Year, an animation that chronicles the adventures of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as he's enlisted by Father Time to help nd the missing Baby New Year. The character has also made appearances in many New Year's events and celebrations over the years — including W iie Nelson's New Year's Eve concerts in Austin, which annuay featured cameos by Baby New Year and Father Texas Time, as we as past New Year's episodes of T he Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Other appearances include the New Year's Eve celebrations in New Orleans, where for 16 years the city celebrated the holiday with a g iant paper mache baby placed on top of a roof in Jackson Square to be dropped along with their beloved eur-de-lis symbol — their own unique version of the T imes Square's ba drop.

What are other traditions associated with Baby New Year? In addition to being a mythical gure and a common character in pop culture, the "Baby New Year" label is also sometimes given to living babies, with many cities and towns having the tradition of honoring the rst child born that year as the Baby New Year. Oftentimes, this lucky newborn receives lots of fame and media attention, and, in many cases, wins special gifts from local hospitals and media stations — with common prizes being gift baskets and certicates, s aving bonds and even f ree diapers. Last year, N ew York City's rst baby of 2020 was born exactly at midnight on January 1!

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/a29849067/baby-new-year-trend-facts/

History of New Year’s Resolutions

The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the rst people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They were also the rst to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the new year—though for them the year began not in January but in mid-March, when the crops were planted. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reairmed their loyalty to the reigning king. They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fa out of the gods’ favor—a place no one wanted to be.

A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special signicance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolicay looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans oered sacrices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.

For early Christians, the rst day of the new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one’s past mistakes and resolving to do and be better in the future. In 1740, the English clergyman John Wesley, founder of Methodism, created the Covenant Renewal Service, most commonly held on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Also known as known as watch night services, they included readings from Scriptures and hymn singing, and served as a spiritual alternative to the raucous celebrations normay held to celebrate the coming of the new year. Now popular within evangelical Protestant churches, especiay African-American denominations and congregations, watch night services held on New Year’s Eve are often spent praying and making resolutions for the coming year.

Despite the tradition’s religious roots, New Year’s resolutions today are a mostly secular practice. Instead of making promises to the gods, most people make resolutions only to themselves, and focus purely on self-improvement (which may explain why such resolutions seem so hard to foow through on). According to recent r esearch, while as many as 45 percent of Americans say they usuay make New Year’s resolutions, only 8 percent are successful in achieving their goals. But that dismal record probably won’t stop people from making resolutions anytime soon—after a, we’ve had about 4,000 years of practice.

BY S ARAH PRUITT https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Step One: Ask the question…. What is it that you want to know?

Step Two: Collect Information….this will help inform your hypothesis.

Step Three: Form a hypothesis… Your prediction of what will happen and why in IF/THEN format. Remember to label the Independent, Dependent, and Controlled Variables.

Step Four: Design an experiment… Something that will test your hypothesis – you want to find out if your hypothesis is correct. Collect and record your data.

Step Five: Analyze, Observe and Record...What is the outcome? What did you learn?

Step Six: Draw conclusions… What does your data tell you – was your hypothesis correct? This information should direct you to ANOTHER question and take you back to STEP ONE again.

Diaper Comparison Shopping Experiment

Name: ______Date: ______

Brand A: Brand B:

Cost Per Diaper: Cost per diaper:

Step One: Ask the Question - your question should test a name brand absorbency with an o brand absorbency- how wi you test the absorbency?

QUESTION: ______

Step Two: Coect information Do some research on how diapers are made. Are dierent materials used for absorbency? Are some materials more costly than others? Record your research you are going to use to inform your hypothesis.

Step Three: F orm a Hypothesis using the IF(IV)/THEN (DV)format O nce you have become familiar with diapers you wi create a hypothesis. Remember to use an IF/THEN statement while including theIndependent and Dependent Variables. Sample: IF we pour liquid in 5 mL increments (IV) onto each diaper THEN Brand A wi hold the most liquid (DV).

HYPOTHESIS: ______

Step Four: Design an experiment, TEST the hypothesis: H ow wi you test your hypothesis? Wi you use mass, over ow of liquid, etc? When you are planning a way to test your hypothesis, you should write a step-by-step procedure describing the materials needed, the set-up of the experiment, and the observations and measurements that wi be made. The goal of a we-designed experiment is to aow anyone who reads it to understand the process you are using and to aow someone else to complete the experiment just by foowing your directions. Materials: ______Step-by-Step Procedure: ______

Diagram:

Step Five: Analysis - Observe & Record Data A n observation involves using a ve senses to make sense of the world around you. Scientists use observations to gather the data that wi support or disprove their hypothesis. There are two basic types of observations: q uantitative and qualitative. Quantitative observations involve a number in the form of an amount or measurement. Qualitative observations use non-numerical descriptions. Scientic observations need to be recorded in an organized way so the experimenter can analyze the information. Making sense of the data is caed data interpretation.

When you create a data table the title should be in this form:

THE EFFECT OF THE (IV) ON THE (DV). Place the IV in the left column of the table and the DV on the right column.

Sample: The eect of dierent amounts of water on diaper mass/absorption Amount of Water (mL) Mass of Diaper (g) 0 2 5 10 10 17

Your Analysis in a Data Table

Title: ______

(IV) (DV)

STEP SIX – DRAW CONCLUSIONS A conclusion is a summary of what you have learned from the experiment. When reaching conclusions, you should decide whether the data you coected supports your hypothesis or not. It is also important to consider if you have coected enough data or if more testing needs to occur before a conclusion can be reached. Examining the process you used and deciding if there were any unidentied or unexpected variables that could have aected the results is also necessary when drawing conclusions. Remember, it is not a problem if the experiment does not turn out how you expected or does not support your hypothesis. Conclusions often lead to new scientic questions and experiments.

Was your hypothesis correct? ______

If you were to do this experiment again what revisions would you make? ______

What is your advice to my friend? Based on your data would you suggest she continue to spend more money on name brand diapers or should she purchase the less expensive o brand? Explain your reasoning. Be certain to include evidence - quantitative and qualitative - from your research to support your recommendation. ______

Marina Colombo, ECOESC