Malta Edition
Ano Nuevo leads today's complete edition for Malta.
Daily Edition
Official observances, world days, local context, and everyday celebrations for people who need something worth reading, sharing, or talking about today.
The calendar flips and every Argentine household is eating vitel tone, the cold sliced beef with tuna sauce that somehow became the definitive New Year dish. Toasts happen with cider, not champagne, and the pan dulce from the panaderia sits half-eaten on the counter until someone finishes it off at merienda the next day.
The whole country moves slow after last night's festivities. Sydney Harbour fireworks are still playing on every TV, and someone's dad is already firing up the barbie for a leftovers lunch. Recovery happens poolside or beachside, thongs on, cold tinny in hand.
National holiday. The dzezva comes out before noon because Bosnians do not nurse hangovers with water. By afternoon someone has already proposed kafa at a kafana and you will not see your couch again until evening. Every New Year starts the same way: with good intentions about being productive and a coffee that turns into four hours.
Jordan observes the Gregorian new year, and Amman celebrates with fireworks over the Citadel and family gatherings. The new year is a secular holiday in a country that observes both Islamic and Christian calendars, and the celebration is inclusive: Muslims, Christians, and Druze all celebrate, and the only thing that is not inclusive is the traffic.
The Maltese new year begins with fireworks over the Grand Harbour in Valletta, and the traditional meal of timpana (a baked pasta pie with meat sauce) or roasted pork. The Maltese love fireworks (they have 35 fireworks factories on an island of 316 square kilometers), and the New Year's fireworks are spectacular. The timpana is the ultimate Maltese comfort food: macaroni, meat sauce, eggs, and cheese, baked in a pastry shell. It is the kind of dish that says "we are starting the year right." The Grand Harbour, flanked by the fortified cities of Valletta and the Three Cities, provides one of the most dramatic backdrops for New Year's fireworks in the world. The Maltese also celebrate with concerts in St George's Square and the traditional new year toast of local sparkling wine.
You see the Cypriot mouflon sheep on the Troodos mountains, the endemic Cyprus mouse and various Mediterranean reptiles like the Cypriot grass snake. You notice that Cypriot families predominantly keep dogs, cats, and rabbits as household companions. ACADA celebrates the world's pets, and helps assure better care.