Newsletter Hartlepool & District U3A New Year Edition, Issue 44, January 2021 Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Comments from the Chair First of all, greetings to you all and I hope you enjoy the festive period Things are definitely looking more optimistic for the new year with more vaccines becoming ready for distribution. I know that some of our members have already had their first jab, so things are definitely going in the right direction. It is important not to get too far ahead of ourselves as it will be a huge undertaking to get everyone vaccinated before we can return to something approaching normal life. With this in mind, the Committee has decided that we need to hold the AGM that has been held over since June. Obviously, we cannot have a face-to-face meeting so we will be holding a 'virtual' AGM on Friday February 5th 2021 at 2 pm. We will be sending out all the relevant documentation required in mid-January by email and by post to give you all plenty of time to scrutinise them. The virtual meeting will be held via Zoom and every member is invited to join. We want to encourage as many members as possible to join and we can offer help if you need it. Phil has kindly offered to help members who are new to Zoom the week before the AGM. Further details will follow. By the time you read this, the latest TAT newsletter will have been sent out and you can also book Introduction to Zoom sessions via a link in this latest edition. The Zoom AGM take place in the afternoon and we need a quorum to make it legal. If there are not enough members present at first, we will take a short break and then recommence. Whoever is then present will make the meeting quorate. We have guidance from the Charities Commission and the National Office that in these extraordinary times a great deal more leeway is allowed than usual. You need to vote on electing a new Committee and approving the Annual Report and Accounts. You will be able to do this at the AGM itself, online or by post. Please do your best to participate in whatever way you can. Your vote is important! Roger Say Chair Hartlepool & District U3A. Registered Charity No 1153641. www.u3asites.org.uk/Hartlepool Page 1 The A-Z of New Year Barry Liddle The aim of this light-hearted article is to explore all the weird and wonderful things we associate with New Year and New Year’s Eve in this country and across the globe. Cheers, and Happy New Year! uld Lang Syne is the song most of us will associate with New Year. It is based on a Scots- language poem written by Robert Burns set to the tune of a traditional folk song. It is often A sung at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve to bid farewell to the old year. There are several verses, but the first verse and chorus of the standard English version are the most popular amongst New Year revellers. Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne? Chorus: For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. is for Babies born on New Year’s Day – photographs of which are a popular feature in most local newspapers. B is also for Bach (Johann Sebastian), who in n the Orgelbüchlein, composed B three chorale preludes for the new year: Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen ("Help me to praise God's goodness"); Das alte Jahr vergangen ist ("The old year has passed"); and In dir ist freude ("In you is joy"). elebrating New Year’s Eve around the world involves a combination of some of the following - going to church, having family meals, gift giving, lighting fireworks, parties, celebratory drinks C and counting down the clock to midnight. However, in addition to these activities, celebrations can also include some local customs and traditions. These are just a brief selection: • New Year's Eve is celebrated in Chile by wearing yellow underwear and yellow clothing. It is said to restore vitality to the person’s life. • There are several traditions among Costa Rican families, including eating 12 grapes representing 12 wishes for the new year, and running across the street with luggage to bring new trips and adventures in the upcoming year. eutschland. In Germany, people exchange small gifts that are supposed to bring good luck for the new year, like marzipan pigs or four-leaf clovers. There's also a tradition of melting little D lead figurines and casting them into water to read your coming year's fortune. cudor. A New Year's Eve tradition in Ecuador is for men to dress in clumsy looking drag to stop cars in the street. In return for some coins, they allow the driver a safe passage through the E street. Hartlepool & District U3A. Registered Charity No 1153641. www.u3asites.org.uk/Hartlepool Page 2 irst Foot. The ‘first-foot’ is the first person to enter the home on New Year's Day and is seen as a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. Similar practices are also found in Greek and F Georgian new year traditions. Traditionally, the ‘first foot’ should be someone who was not already in the house when midnight struck – hence the Scottish party tradition (and a tradition common in Hartlepool) of having one guest leave just before the bells so they can knock on the door as the new year begins. In our Hartlepool household the ‘first foot’ would always be given a piece of silver and would cut the New Year Cake. inger Wine (Non- Alcoholic), Going down ‘memory lane’ to when I was a boy both my gran and my mam used to make a non-alcoholic ginger wine in the lead-up to New year. And this G is what youngsters - allowed -up to see in the New Year - would drink with a slice of New Year’s cake. The ginger wine had a pleasantly sweet taste, but the ginger would always catch the back of your throat. In our house it has used as a reviver in cold weather and the occasional glass was offered to the milkman on cold mornings. ogmanay is the term for New Year’s Eve in Scotland and the celebrations that can take place at this time. This joyful gathering which can continue for days, was especially strong in the H years when Christmas itself was ‘banned’ in Scotland (this took place in 1640 by order of the Parliament of Scotland and Christmas only became a public holiday in 1958 and Boxing day in 1974.) taly. In Italy, New Year's Eve is celebrated with traditional rituals, such as wearing red underwear. An ancient tradition in southern regions which is rarely followed today, was disposing of old or I unused items by dropping them from the window. apan. In Japan, New Year's Eve is used to prepare for and welcome Toshigami, the New Year's god. People clean their homes and prepare Kadomatsu (traditional Japanese decoration) or J Shimenawa (lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion) to welcome the god before New Year's Eve. orea. There are two New Year’s Days celebrated in both North and South Korea, which are the Lunar New Year and the Solar New Year. The Solar New Year are always celebrated on the first K day of January while Lunar New Year varies. In both Koreas, they call New Year's Day (Seoll- Nal). They eat a special soup called (Tteok-Guk) which is a hot soup with thin, flat rice cakes and most of the times, eggs are inserted. ondon. London leads the New Year celebrations in England. The London New Year’s Eve Fireworks are often the first item on the news bulletins on TV the next day – together with L Edinburgh, Sydney and other capitals across the world. London’s New Year's Eve firework display is celebrated along the Victoria Embankment and South Bank areas of the River Thames where the London Eye and Big Ben are situated. The countdown is accompanied by the chimes of Big Ben, and a digital countdown timer projected onto the Shell Centre. The fireworks are launched off the London Eye and from barges in the River Thames at midnight. The event draws huge crowds or at least it did until Covid-19 raised its ugly head. exicans celebrate New Year's Eve, by eating a grape with each of the twelve chimes of a clock's bell during the midnight countdown, while making a wish with each one. Mexican M families decorate homes and parties in colours that represent wishes for the upcoming Hartlepool & District U3A. Registered Charity No 1153641. www.u3asites.org.uk/Hartlepool Page 3 year: so, for example red encourages an overall improvement of lifestyle and love, yellow encourages blessings of improved employment conditions, green for improved financial circumstances, and white for improved health. Mexican sweet bread is baked with a coin or charm hidden in the dough (rather like the old custom in this country of putting coins in the Christmas pudding). When the bread is served, the recipient of the slice with the coin or charm is said to be blessed with good luck in the New Year.