Palau Edition
Ano Viejo leads today's complete edition for Palau.
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.
Fireworks over the Rock Islands, families on the beach, and the countdown shouted in Palauan. The last meal of the year is the same as the first: taro, fish, and whatever the sea provides. AHA: The Palauan calendar is out of sync with the agricultural year. Palau sits 7 degrees north of the equator, which means there are no real seasons : just wet and wetter. The "new year" is a colonial import that sits on top of a culture that used the moon and the tides, not the Gregorian calendar, to measure time. The transition at midnight is a compromise between two systems of understanding the world.
