New Delhi2 hours ago
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As soon as 12 o’clock in the night strikes on 31st December, New Year celebrations will begin across the world. But do you know, in New Zealand the New Year will come 7 and a half hours before India, whereas in America it will be 9 and a half hours later. In this way, the journey of New Year will continue for 19 hours all over the world.
Not only the time of celebrating New Year but also the customs are different in the world. In Japan, people ring the bell 108 times to welcome the New Year, while China will celebrate on January 29.
On New Year, know the science of different times in different countries and 6 strange customs of celebrating New Year…
The British had divided the world’s time The year changes as the Earth completes one revolution around the Sun. At the same time, when it rotates completely on its axis, there are days and nights. Due to the continuous rotation of the Earth on its axis, there is morning at some places, afternoon at some places and night at some places. This is the reason why almost every country in the world has been divided into different time zones.
Why was there a need for time zones? The clock was invented in the 16th century, but until the 18th century it was set according to the position of the sun. When the sun was overhead, the clock would strike 12.
Initially there was no problem due to different timings of different countries, but later people started reaching from one country to another within a few hours by rail. Due to different timings in the countries, people faced problems in keeping track of train timings. For example, if a person left the station at 8 in the morning, then after 5 hours, there would be some more time in the country where he reached.
In such a situation, Canadian Railway engineer Sir Sanford Fleming was the first to solve this problem. Actually, in 1876, he missed his train due to different timings. Because of this, he came up with the idea of creating different time zones in different areas of the world.
He talked about dividing the world into 24 time zones. The Earth rotates 360 degrees every 24 hours. That means 15 degrees every hour, which was considered the distance of one timezone. This created 24 equally spaced times around the world.
However, even after creating time zones, there was a problem as to who should be considered the center of the world while dividing the 24 time zones. To decide this, the International Prime Meridian Conference was called in 1884. In this, Greenwich of England was chosen as the prime meridian. It was placed at 0 degrees in the map.
At present, the timezone of the entire world is matched with GMT i.e. Greenwich Mean Time. That is, if your country is 60 degrees away from GMT then there will be a difference of 60X4 = 240 minutes i.e. 4 hours in the time zone.
The time in the country which is east of Greenwich is ahead of Britain and behind if it is west. Just as India’s time is five and a half hours ahead of Britain’s time, America, being to the west of Britain, is five hours behind Britain’s time.
The countries of the Oceania continent are furthest east from Britain. In this, New Zealand and Australia are the big countries where it will be 12 o’clock first and the New Year will be welcomed. When the New Year starts in New Zealand, it will be 4.30 pm on December 31 in India. According to this time zone, China’s time is two and a half hours ahead of India, hence New Year will come there first.
Why was Greenwich chosen as GMT? Astronomical phenomena were studied in Greenwich for a long time. Therefore Britain made this place the center of the time zone. At that time Britain used to be the most powerful country in the world. It was also far ahead in trade and had control over most of the world’s territory. Most of the ships involved in maritime trade used British time.
Know which country will celebrate New Year as per Indian time…
Why doesn’t China celebrate New Year with the world?
China is one of those countries in the world where New Year is not celebrated on January 1. Actually, China is one of those countries which follows the lunisolar calendar instead of the solar calendar.
The lunisolar calendar has 12 months and each month is considered complete when the Moon makes one revolution around the Earth. The Moon completes one revolution around the Earth in 29 days and a few hours.
In China, New Year is celebrated on the 30th day of the 12th month. It is called Danian Sanshi in China. This year, New Year will be celebrated in China on 29 January. During this time people give red colored cards to each other. Not only this, during this time worship of ancestors and dinner with family, dragon and lion dance are also organized.
Not only China, but big countries like Vietnam, South Korea, North Korea and Mongolia also celebrate this festival with different traditions.
Strange ways to celebrate New Year around the world…
As soon as the clock strikes 12 midnight on 31st December, the whole world welcomes the New Year, but have you ever wondered why the year starts on 1st January? The reason for this is considered to be the dictator of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar.
Caesar had made changes in the calendar 2066 years ago to teach a lesson to corrupt leaders. After this the whole world started celebrating New Year on 1 January.
After all, what happened that Caesar had to change the calendar, when was the New Year first celebrated?
After all, why is the New Year celebrated only on January 1? It was 2637 years ago i.e. 673 BC. There used to be a king named Numa Pompilus in Rome. He changed the Roman calendar and decided to celebrate the New Year from January instead of March. Earlier, the New Year in Rome used to start on March 25.
Numa Pompilus argued that the month of January was named after the Roman god of new beginnings. Janus It is named after. At the same time, the month of March is named after the God of Wars in Rome. mars Named after. That is why the new year should also start in January instead of March.
The calendar issued by Numa Pompilus contained 310 days and only 10 months in a year. At that time there were 8 days in a week. Although the New Year was celebrated in January 2175 years ago i.e. till 153 BC, it was not officially announced.
In 607, Numa Pompilus overthrew the monarchy in Rome. The entire responsibility of the empire came to the Roman Republic. After being in power for a few years, the leaders of the Republic started becoming corrupt. Taking advantage of the turmoil in the Roman Empire, Roman Army General Julius Caesar took the entire command in his hands.
After this he started teaching a lesson to the leaders. In fact, the leaders of the Republic started making changes in the calendar as per their wish in order to remain in power for a longer period and to rig the elections. He would sometimes increase and sometimes decrease the days in the calendar as per his wish.
To find a solution to this, Julius Caesar changed the calendar. In 46 BC, Roman Emperor Julius Caesar issued a new calendar.
Astronomers told Julius Caesar that the Earth takes 365 days and 6 hours to revolve around the Sun. After this Caesar increased the Roman calendar from 310 days to 365 days. Also, Caesar decided to make the month of February 29 days, so that the increase of one day every 4 years could be adjusted. Next year i.e. from 45 BC, New Year started being celebrated on 1 January.