OK, is it just me personally, is it related to ADHD, or is it something else?

Why does the whole world care so much about New Year's Eve?

Seriously. What's the big deal all about?

This is one of my BIG QUESTIONS IN LIFE which I've always wanted to know but was afraid to ask.

Come on, surely someone can explain this to me.

When I drank, it was perfectly clear to me that it was the best reason to drink all year long. Now I'm sober...I'm clueless.

HAH that's a good one.
Seems we humans look for any excuse to party.
Middle of winter's an unusual time to start a year if you ask me. Spring is much more practical.
Think I missed Draga's chat tonight but I'm hanging out if anyone feels chatty.

Celebrating the surival of another year of the Same Ole Chit :p

I too don't understand the big deal with new years eve. I always have to work, and by time I get done its to late to go out. So, New Years never really appealed to me. I feel like I have better things to do with my money then **** it away!

Why does the whole world care so much about New Year's Eve?

I've always wondered that myself......When I was a kid it was about getting to stay up late to see " the ball drop" and eat pizza.....

As a teen it ment I made extra money waitressing NewYears Eve......

As for all the other years, I sat alone most NewYears Eves feeling lonely and wondering why I felt that way. Wondering who said if you weren't drinking and partying with your family and friends you were some how a loser.......

Most of the people I know now are happy to just stay home with their families. But yet I still feel a lonely feeling when my husband goes to bed leaving me to watch "the ball drop" alone. Every year I try to see why this gets me down.....

I am totally not into it. Im pretty sure its the same as, mardi gras just an excuse to party (namely drink) and since Im also an early bedtime person, it definatly holds no interest for me. Time marches on........

My sentiments exactly..what's so great about the New Year in the middle of winter??? I was asked to go somewhere with a friend..to a bar..I'm not a drinker...I stayed home and was feeling lonely..and finally just went to bed..slept real good after the last few days of hurt of a failed relationship...:( so maybe this is a sign..Carry on..:) I guess I am accepting all the hurt at least in little bits..but it's January 1st..Big DEAL!!!

Hmmm...so far its 7 to 0.
Anyone care to reveal the DHM (Deep Hidden Meaning) behind it all?

It's all about $$$$ like most other holidays....

i dont get it either. i guess its because its a 'new' year and its time to make changes the next day. one last night of partying it up before i make some resolution i wont keep. and the cycle continues.

i understand st. patty's day.

that being said, i did go out, i think the place my friend and i went to doesnt even serve alcohol.

The timing of New Years at or around the Winter solistice does coincide with ancient pagan festivals of death and renewal. Marti Gras, too, may be a similar translation of a pagan renewal festival into a christian celebration.

The key here, besides timing, is many ancient relegions maintain a belief in the spiritual or mythical cycle of a year. The universe dies and is reborn at the end of each year, completing the eternal cycle represented by seasonal agricultural harvests. The world enters into a period of chaos, then is recreated.

The period of chaos is manifest in an exuberant celebration where most strictures of society are thrown off.

Party hardy, the wilder the better, because you begin anew when its all over! You act out chaos. %^) I like that.

In contrast, the Judeo-Christian religions place chaos at the beginning (and end) of linear time. In the beginning, over the waters and all that. You wait around for the Messiah and the end times, all the while accumulating a debt of sin and guilt.

So we have one night of celebration, then make all sorts of dreary resolutions on New Year's day. Now Marti Gras, that's closer to the source.

IMHO, such as it tiz.

Happy New Years! Lead me unto chaos and renewal.

I don't understand the big to-do over new year's either. we have always chosen to stay home and up our chances of staying alive what with all those drunks out there driving home.

The celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon. The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/riteofspring1.html), in mid-March. A variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by various ancient cultures. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/wintersolstice1.html).

Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings in the New Year

The early Roman calendar (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0857113.html) designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. That the new year once began with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0002067.html). September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem is Latin for “seven,” octo is “eight,” novem is “nine,” and decem is “ten”).

January Joins the Calendar

The first time the new year was celebrated on January 1st was in Rome in 153 B.C. (In fact, the month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C., when the second king of Rome, Numa Pontilius (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0836169.html), added the months of January and February.) The new year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly elected Roman consuls (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0813353.html)—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began their one-year tenure. But this new year date was not always strictly and widely observed, and the new year was still sometimes celebrated on March 1.

Julian Calendar: January 1st Officially Instituted as the New Year

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0809782.html) introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was a vast improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was a lunar system that had become wildly inaccurate over the years. The Julian calendar (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0857113.html) decreed that the new year would occur with January 1, and within the Roman world, January 1 became the consistently observed start of the new year.

Middle Ages: January 1st Abolished

In medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the new year were considered pagan and unchristian like, and in 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.

Gregorian Calendar: January 1st Restored

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gregorian1.html) reform restored January 1 as new year's day (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0835506.html). Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately, it was only gradually adopted (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0002061.html) among Protestant countries. The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire—and their American colonies—still celebrated the new year in March.

it's about celebrating transitions...as we move through phases of our lives. It is a way to document and put a word to our past year and set a course for our future.

We always move ahead, yet while we do this, I find it important to remember that exact moment in time...kind of like being between two moments; holding on and letting go.

I can be a time to clear the slate; and some of us prefer to do it with our most important people. I do because I find that I would prefer to do it alone or at least with the ones that love and know me the best.

I have spent some alone and some with a close loved one, as well as with crowds of people. I prefer the solitude so that I can just experience this shift of time...I want it to go slowly and with little noise of spectacle/fanfare so that I can savor it... somehow, for me I see a deep significance to this milestone...

Agree with you dude, actually no holiday seems much different. These days are marked for the "masses", not the people who post here, aye? Later, good point.

Out with the old, in with the new. Remembering to write -05 instead of -04 is what new years means to me. I didn't do anything too special this year.

My family and many other Scottish families here make a tradition of baking steak pie on new years eve, and lots of fireworks are set off and everybody drinks themselves stupid. I don't really care about new years eve, but it's an excuse to have a good time and I'm sure not gonna spoil it. :D

Well, it's certainly no big deal for me either. As a musician, it's just a night we get paid alot more than other nights. Why so many people feel it's somehow worthwhile to spend lots more money, to "celebrate" the change of a year, with lots of others, drinking too much, escapes me....

I think the "deeper meaning" behind this has to do with the fact Thoreau stated a long time ago, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation".....

I find that most people are very bored with their lives, feel very unfulfilled, and quite disconnected, to both others, & themselves.
So, gathering in a crowd, sharing the common "interest" in counting down the final seconds of the year, partying & making alot of noise, adds a little artificial "exitement" to their life.

Much like sporting events, concerts, 4th of July fireworks, etc.....

We all crave connection.......