The Holiday Whiz: New Year's Eve, Pine Cone Drop, Champagne Day, more

Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Year's Eve, Pine Cone Drop, Champagne Day, more

December 31st, 2011, is New Year's Eve, Pine Cone Drop, First Night, Oga no Namahage, King Mango Strut, Hogmanay, Stonehaven Fireball Festival, Unlucky Day, Leap Second Time Adjustment Day, Make Up Your Mind Day, World Healing Day, and National Champagne Day.

New Year's Eve is a time for celebration, including the ball drop in New York's Times Square and the lesser-known Pine Cone Drop in Flagstaff, Arizona. Many communities offer First Night festivities with no alcohol. Have a wonderful night. Drive safely, sans alcohol, texting, and other dangerous activitiies while on the road.

Oga City in Japan celebrates Oga no Namahage, when youths wearing masks and carrying wooden knives visit homes looking for crying children, lazy people, and other ne'er-do-wells. After receiving sake and mochi cakes, the youths depart, promising good luck to the family.

Coconut Grove, Florida, hosts the 30th annual King Mango Strut. Mangoheads unite!

In Scotland, New Year's Eve is celebrated with fire and fun as Hogmanay. In Stonehaven, the celebration is especially intense, featuring the Stonehaven Fireball Festival.

Unlucky Day always coincides with New Year's Eve. But never fear - you can mount a counteroffensive against this ominous holiday by eating certain foods that bring luck for the coming year. Southerners in the United States enjoy black-eye peas; other Americans eat herring; Austrians enjoy suckling pig; Sicilians eat lasagna (but no other pasta); Japanese eat noodles; Brazilians eat lentils; Spaniards, Portugese, and Peruvians eat grapes; Germans have carp; and Norwegians eat rice pudding. If you're in Denmark, watch out for piles of broken dishes on your front porch, left by well-wishers. Oh, and don't eat lobster or winged birds, no matter where you live. Don't ask why - just obey if you're superstitious!

Leap Second Time Adjustment Day takes place on the last day of June and/or the last day of December, as needed. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service determines if clocks should be adjusted, accomodating changes in Earth's rotation, to keep the time difference between atomic clocks and the Earth's position within .9 seconds. No adjustment will take place today. The last adjustment was made on December 31st, 2008. Experts have not yet determined if an adjustment will be necessary on June 30th, 2012.

Make Up Your Mind Day is an opportunity to set goals for the future, firm up plans for New Year's Eve, or simply decide what to have for dinner. Your choice.

World Healing Day, presented by the Quartus Foundation, is a time for everyone to come together in a "simultaneous global mind link," to pray for world peace and love. The event takes place for one hour, beginning at noon Greenwich time.
In case anyone needs an extra reason to imbibe today or tonight, today is known as National Champagne Day. Cheers!

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Holiday Quotes

Every day is a holiday with you by my side. –N. Fleming

Today is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, Wednesday is National Baked Alaska Day, Friday is National Carrot Cake Day. I'm not sure how these days get started, but I'm getting very fat celebrating them. –Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live

Today is National Cheese Day, and I mean this when I say it, I hope your day is as gouda as mine. And if you're having a bad day, just hope it gets cheddar. Come on, admit it, that was sharp. I'm sorry, those puns were cheesy. Seriously, I apologize for those jokes. That's not the person I want to brie. –Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

In Britain the day after Christmas, the 26th of December, is called Boxing Day. And do you know why? Because they fight each other. –Craig Ferguson, The Late Late Show

The 4th of July is the day we celebrate our independence from Simon Cowell. –Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live

Today is...Earth Day, or, as it will be known in twenty years, That Planet that We Used to Live On until We Ruined It Day. –Craig Ferguson, The Late Late Show

Eight more days of Lent, then it’s back to chocolate, bourbon, and Lady Boxing on Pay-Per-View. –Conan O'Brien, via Twitter

Be Nice to Lawyers Day–have you heard anything so crazy in your life? What is that, like Pet a Serial Killer Day? –Craig Ferguson, The Late Late Show

Sometimes I worry that we Americans have lost sight of the true meaning of Bampflugnax Day. –Conan O'Brien, via Twitter

I heard about this Day of the Dead that they do here [in Mexico]. Everyone basically has a party to celebrate the dead people. We don't do that. We find it all a bit morbid, don't we, death? We don't like to talk about it. We certainly don't have a day dedicated to it. But then we waste days, you know, dedicated to, like, Pancake Tuesday. Why have we got a day for pancakes? –Karl Pilkington, An Idiot Abroad

Anyone acquainted with Ireland knows that the morning of St. Patrick's Day consists of the night of the 17th of March flavored strongly with the morning of the 18th. –Author Unknown

The best way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once. –H. V. Prochnow

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. –Oren Arnold

There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents ... and only one for birthday presents, you know. –Lewis Carroll

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. –Dave Barry

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. –John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with. C.B. is such a loser. He wasn't even the star of his own Halloween special. –Chris Rock

About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm. –Kurt Vonnegut

A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. –Paul Sweeney

I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending. –Fred Rogers

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell. –George Bernard Shaw

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. –H.U. Westermayer

As we struggle with shopping lists and invitations, compounded by December's bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same. –Donald E. Westlake

A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. –Robert Frost

For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out. –Steven Wright

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. –Irv Kupcinet

The holiest of all holidays are those/ Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;/ The secret anniversaries of the heart,/ When the full river of feeling overflows;--/ The happy days unclouded to their close;/ The sudden joys that our of darkness start/ As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart/ Like swallows singing down each wind that blows! –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow