Malawi Edition
Ano Viejo leads today's complete edition for Malawi.
Daily Edition
Official observances, world days, local context, and everyday celebrations for people who need something worth reading, sharing, or talking about today.
Not an official holiday, but try finding someone at work. The country gathers at the coast to watch the Valparaiso fireworks, eats twelve grapes at midnight for twelve wishes, and toasts with champagne. The Valparaiso show is three kilometers of fireworks over the bay and it is spectacular. The grapes are mandatory.
The fireworks over Sydney Harbour are watched by a billion people worldwide and by a hundred thousand people standing in the Domain with warm champagne and sore feet. The countdown is shouted. The kiss at midnight is given. And someone has already set off illegal fireworks in the suburban backyard and the dog is under the bed.
Another midnight celebration with the whole family. The leftover pan dulce from Christmas reappears, the sidra is still flowing, and someone counts down from ten. Paper fireworks in the street, hugs all around, and the unshakeable feeling that next year, surely, things will be better. "El ano que viene si," the eternal Argentine hope.
The last day of the year is celebrated with church services, fireworks (in the cities), and the traditional meal of nsima with chambo. The church service is the most important event of the evening : the "crossing over" service, where worshippers pray their way from the old year into the new. The singing is joyful, the preaching is fiery, and the moment of midnight is greeted with shouts of "Chaka chatsopano!" (New year!). In the cities, the nightclubs are packed, the chibuku flows, and the Lake of Stars after-party keeps the music going until dawn. In the villages, the celebration is quieter : a fire, a meal, and the hope that the new year will be better than the old one.
You observe the Curaçao white-tailed deer, tropical seabirds including the burrowing owl, and colorful fish species in the surrounding Caribbean waters. You find that residents commonly keep dogs, cats, and sometimes iguanas as pets in this island community. ACADA celebrates the world's pets, and helps assure better care.