When the clock strikes past the hour of 12 midnight Monday, chances are most people would still be awake for one simple reason – to welcome the New Year. In different parts of the globe, practices have evolved through the years enough to preoccupy people well past their bedtime. Like the two-headed Roman god Janus after whom the month of January is named, people are caught between looking back and looking ahead. To many people, it is a time for resolutions, a practice that goes all the way back to the Babylonians who chose this time to return borrowed farm implements. These days, resolutions normally revolve around unwanted vices, unwanted traits and unwanted pounds, not necessarily in that order. Resolutions however have a way of being trivialized after a short while. Many people in fact make several copies of the resolutions because they say they will be using them for many years. There are other unique ways to celebrate the event.

In Spain, 12 grapes are eaten in the last 12 seconds while a custom popular in northeast Scotland involves people marching through the streets while twirling flaming balls on chains. The countdown is being done in many places but the most famous is in the Times Square where a 1,070 pound, 6-foot Waterford crystal ball is dropped at the count of midnight . Others gather at a public place to celebrate with much cheering and the singing of “Auld Lang Syne”. Given the significance of the event, it does not take much for superstition to play an important role in many celebrations.

In 19th century England , the first person to come into the house after midnight needs to have certain personal characteristics and to conform to certain rules in order to bring good luck to the house. There was a practice wherein the ashes of the domestic fire were inspected for shapes for signs on what lay ahead. Even before the day was declared a Bank Holiday in England in 1974, there were strong traditions that no work should be done. It was one of the days when washing was considered particularly unlucky and when new clothes should be worn with the provision that there is money in the pocket or it would mean poverty the entire year.

There was also the practice that nothing should be taken out of the house until something is brought in. The rational for this is that the net flow of luck, prosperity, food and so on would be inward and positive rather than outward. In the Philippines , most people prefer to celebrate the event with a blast – with dire consequences. The injuries and even deaths caused by firecrackers and stray bullets leave people forever scarred over what should have been a celebration. The hard-line response resorted to by national and local governments have lately been successful as evidenced by the drastic drop in the incidence of injuries and deaths reported during the revelry.

There are other people who think the campaign is being credited far more than it deserves. The reason for the drop, they argue, is the bad economy which forces people to shun firecrackers due to budgetary constraints. And since the Arroyo government can last up to more than two years more, many say they do not expect things to change. She cannot possibly do in two years what she failed to do in six years. That is like saying there is not much difference the way things are in the year ahead from the present year. Whatever, the point is that people really have to bid farewell to the present year and expect a different one in a just over two days. In more respects than one, it is goodbye, 2007, hello 2008.