Want to know why we celebrate the New Year and how far back it all started…..

• The earliest known New Year celebrations were in Mesopotamia and date back to 2000 BC
• The early Romans used March 1 as New Year’s Day. Other cultures used the autumn equinox or the winter solstice to mark the new year
• January is named after Janus, the god with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward
• While New Year’s is the time when many people traditionally make resolutions to break bad habits or start good ones, ancient Persians gave New Year’s gifts of eggs, which symbolized productiveness
• Most New Year’s traditions are believed to ensure good luck for the coming year. Many parts of the United States observe the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck
• The largest fireworks display in the UK is over the London Eye, presented by the Mayor of London
• In Scotland, Hogmanay celebrations reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Vikings with wild parties in late December
• One of the largest celebrations in the UK takes place in Edinburgh with festivities starting on 30 Dec and lasting for 3 days, including fireworks on the castle ramparts on New Year’s Eve and the annual Loony Dook, a splash in the River Forth at South Queensferry after the Dookers Parade through the High Street on 1 Jan
• In other parts of Scotland revellers bring in the bells with the Inverness Red Hot Highland Fling on the banks of the River Ness, the Fireballs Parade in Aberdeenshire to burn off any bad spirits left from the old year, and the whisky celebrations in Dufftown in Speyside, where drams of whisky and pieces of shortbread are shared out in The Square