While I usually pride myself on my supreme eloquence, I think few would disagree that 2020 has been a write off so far. Sadly though, as much as we’d like to see the year ending, there are several cultures that have their own versions of the new year holiday, thus confusing when the year starts and ends.
With this in mind, we’ve decided to do a collection of all the New Year holidays so that you can plan how and when to see out the old, and in with the new.
Western New Year January 1st, 2021
Technically at least when the new decade begins, and hopefully this time without all that coronavirus nonsense. Traditional New Year’s is ideally celebrated in Pyongyang with us on one of our North Korea Tours.
Orthodox New Year January 14th, 2021
Otherwise known as Russian new year, much similar to the above mentioned new year, but involving much more vodka.
Chinese/Lunar New Year February 12th, 2021
Fun fact they call Chinese New Year “Korean New Year” in Korea. This Celebration involves fireworks, and rather a lot of dumplings and mahjong.
Persian New Year March 12th, 2021
Persian New Year is an extremely big deal. The celebration lasts for almost two weeks. Imagine Thanksgiving and Christmas bundled up into one.
Khmer New Year April 14th – 16th 2021
Khmer or Cambodian New Year is a time when families get together and eat and then go travel somewhere nice, ideally without their family.
Parsi New Year August 17th, 2021
Parsi new year is celebrated by the Zoroastrian faith largely present in Iran, interestedly the oldest monolithic religion in the world. Another food-based party!
Jewish New Year September 6th-8th 2021
Jewish New Year, also known as Rosh Hashanah, will mark the year 5780, which leaves but a mere 220 years before the deadline of the messiah arriving. Anyone who claims it be the messiah before that might simply be a “naughty boy”
And that’s our fast track guide to the many new years on our horizon, hopefully at least of them might bring some good luck, but who knows.