...any other holiday celebration, New Year’s marks the passing of time, a transition from the old to the new, a journey from the known to the unknown. Although the standard custom is to go out and party and have a good time, New Year’s presents us the opportunity to gain insight into ourselves, our memories of the past year, and our hopes, dreams, and fears for the future year.Like birthdays, New Year’s encourages us to look back and ahead. But where birthdays mark a new year for individuals, New Year’s is a time for everybody, when we all have the opportunity to review our lives and our deeds as individuals and as a society.In many cultures, New Year’s is a day of reconciliation to provide an occasion for closing rifts and healing disputes. It acts as a kind of cleansing ceremony with a chance to look back upon the last year, what good things happened, what bad things happened, and our hopes and fears for the upcoming year.When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve amidst all the hugging, kissing, The New Year’s celebration is the acknowledging that we cannot welcome in the New Year without saying goodbye to the old one. Letting go of the past, whether pleasant or painful, can be our biggest challenge as we stand at the threshold of an unknown future in the coming year. And more than any other holiday, the way we celebrate New Year’s changes with who we are. Our stage of life determines how we spend New Year’s Eve, and how we spend New Years’ Eve also tells us something about...
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...A toast to a new beginning Growing up in suburban Lahore, New Year’s eves used to be a quiet event. Yet excitement for the New Year was evident in the spirit of every child and adult. New Year’s Eve was the celebration of a new beginning. Something to be jubilant about. It was a time for a simple gesture of wishing health and wealth to all, and the best that life could give to all. Indeed, the New Year promised a bright future. Even today, the charm of the New Year’s Eve continues to thrill. Despite the face paced life, it offers a chance for friends and family to come together and celebrate a joyous occasion. It is a new hope harbored into an old fashioned cheer. It is here, as the clock approaches midnight that spirits are rekindled. However, standing united, facing a new beginning, my peers do stop for a moment and remember the past floating by. True, the year 2009 saw numerous challenges, many battles and much heartache. The economy painted a bleak picture. The woes of a common man mounted to new levels. Our land was in constant grip of terror. We lost many fellow countrymen as brave martyrs of terrorism. Indeed 2009 was a difficult year. It made the transition to 2010 a solemn attempt. But that’s the beauty of a New Year. A moment artificial yet so profound. It brings a new dawn. It is a chance to redeem oneself. It offers a brand new path to success. It is an opportunity to rise above and make a difference. A new year brings with it the making of new goals, settings...
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...Christmas was with my family. I like it that way. In fact I make it a point to celebrate Christmas with the family every year. New year's however has never been celebrated with the family from the time I turned 18. I always thought that celebrating with the family wasn't "cool". I made sure I had plans to party out on New Year's Eve. But its different this year. It's the last year we celebrate New Year's eve as a nuclear family. My sister is getting married in 30 days. Next year, all common celebrations will have to be shared with her new family. Its a new beginning, a beginning that I wished never begun. But it is a new beginning nevertheless, a beginning of new traditions. In the meantime, someone sent me a beautiful and haunting poem. Enjoy. Another Christmas, Another year ending; A year of pain and loss and bewilderment, Of beauty and fear, With a little love to make us go on struggling, A little joy to make it worth the struggle. Another Christmas, Another dream over. Do we dare to remember last year And the years before? So much is gone, so many memories, How can we stop what remains from becoming a shadow? Another Christmas, Another pause in the fighting. Can the pain that we give to others And the pain that we cause for ourselves Really be laid to rest by a Christmas card Or a sprig of mistletoe? Are we not as afraid of dying on Christmas Day? Another Christmas, Another pause for reflection: ...
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...celebrated the last day of the year( December 31st) but their celebration is much different from America. Japanese people run around a lot to welcome a New Year with a clean state of mind. Therefor おそじ (big cleaning is to be done and finished by December 31st to remove clutter and dirt from the old year ant-to purify the home for the coming year. Behind this is that years are considered completely separate with each New Year’s providing a fresh start. 女や is the night of New year’s Eve. Just before the night, temples throughout japan strike their big bells 108 times, once for every human desire. The peal of a large bell on 女や is called 女やの金。Ringing the bell for the passing year and ringing the bell for the upcoming year after the busy work. Japanese people welcome New Year’s Day quietly with their families. A special dish is made before New Year’s; Japanese people eat during the New Year Celebration. A variety of ingredients such as fish, beans and rolled help are used. They are cooked in a way they can keep long and served in a set of layered lacquer boxes. モチ(rice cake) are also eaten during the new year celebration. ネオがじょare new year’s greeting postcards sent out for wishing their friends, relatives and customers a happy new year; This is similar to the western practice of exchanging Christmas cards. The postcards usually have the chines Zodiac sign of the New Year as each year is represented by an animal. The...
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...place was because almost half of revenues was chain accounted form 200 restaurants. On the Monday morning of New Year’s Eve Mike receives a call from Ted Brewer, VP (Administration and Operations) stating that Fred Jones, Southern quality assurance manager wants to talk to him. “The seafood-stuffed pasta shells that Southern had just shipped to its biggest customer were tainted with salmonella” Fred said. Mike was horrified as it was the New Year’s Eve, biggest night in the year for restaurants. The two challenges against him was that either, “This major regulatory incident could permanently shut him down” or “ He can wave good-bye to 50% of the revenue stream that he just bought 3 weeks ago”. Thereafter, Mike sets up a conference call with his management team which includes Dan, Ted & Mark. They were discussing that what would be their defense against such a tragic incident. The pressure from FDA, customers, media etc would be too worst to handle. After discussion, there were two options. One option would be to trust the chain’s cooking standards. Another option would be to contact the chain and have them notify all restaurants, to make sure that the cooking temperature was high enough. By now, it was late afternoon and Mike had to figure out what to do as the restaurants would soon be starting to serve their patrons, happily celebrating New Year’s Eve. 1 Issues and Challenges On hearing that the delivery of salmonella contaminated pasta to a important...
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...changing the business entity. The decision that needs to be made is which entity will best suit their advancing needs. Acme Fireworks can choose between three entities: a partnership, corporation, and limited liability company (LLC). There are pros and cons for each of the different entities. When taking into account the current personal liability, if the contracts already in place are valid, employment needs to fulfill the large orders, and defining the different types of entities, my recommendation for Acme Fireworks would be to become a corporation. Just about everyone in the United States has some personal experience with fireworks, either from Fourth of July or New Year's Eve celebrations. Fireworks have always been dangerous and have caused, and continue to cause, serious and tragic accidents. Every year injuries both minor and major are caused by fireworks. Potential personal liability for injuries to consumers caused by the firework products is inevitable. When the firework explodes, it can send out many burning hot embers, or if it is positioned in the wrong place it can set houses or nature on fire. Fireworks can even be a dangerous weapons in the hands of vandals. However, not all mishaps due to fireworks occur as a result of carelessness, negligence or ignorance. Simple precautions can help avoid these mishaps. Fireworks are designed to be a volatile product. They must be handled with care and used as they are intended. However, even under perfect circumstances improperly...
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...winter just a few years ago. Consider the living room in one of the many houses in Beijing. The main feature of the room is the TV screen surrounded by the flowery sofas and a sharp edged wood table; there is also the ceiling to floor windows that shows vivid motions of the streets and its civilians walking by. The lights of the room are dancing with joy by its sense of voice and excitement rising in the air. A female with neat black-red hair is sitting comfortably on the sofa. She is wearing a warm red turtleneck sweater with comfy grey leggings and her feet heated with a pair of purple socks covered randomly with yellow polka dots. She is ordinary and swift like a light hearted puppy; but due to stress and reduction terms of sleep, her loss of weight is obvious in the shadow of her slim shape. Her face shines the childish laughs as Ellen DeGeneres but different by the look of her skinny cheekbones and the spark of a Chocolate –Hershey bar pair of eyes. Turning on the TV and curling herself into a ball on the couch, she exclaims in delight, “Bring out the snacks and food for the New Year Show!” She is rushing me and the rest of the family to prepare since the show is starting. She is in her mid-forties as I am in my teenage years. The woman is my mother. My dad is here along with my sister and occasionally disputes erupt, but as a family, we try to ignore the pretty ugly flames that prickle our heart at times; we are all here, as always, to celebrate the New Year together. My...
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...business for the New Year! Learn to spot opportunities Right now is the perfect time to be thinking how you are going to leverage and take tremendous steps towards the growth of your new business. It’s about time you actually began thinking strategically, evaluating and becoming the best entrepreneur you can possibly be! It’s time to spot potentially excellent opportunities about the year ahead. Perhaps you have been knocked down a couple of times but it’s not time to quit. Every year comes full with new opportunities. Quitting is failing and in the New Year you ought to be prepared to spring back on your feet when you get knocked down. Review previous business Before beginning the preparation for 2014, you first need to start by reviewing the positive and negative occurrences of this year’s business. This will enable you to improve delivery in the coming year which we all know plays a crucial part in evolving your business. Identify key strategic indicators Think about marketing your company. Examine the numbers by looking at the key strategic indicators that will tell you whether you are on the right track for 2014. It’s extremely critical to the growth of your business for you to fully comprehend and use these indicators. Which strategic indicators do you want to focus on this coming year and which ones are likely to achieve your set goals and objectives for the New Year. Outsourcing and marketing Preparing for the New Year is very important; you need to update your new business and...
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...New Year's Day reservations -- Café Paris? (Too much $$?) Tim O'Connell paused, pen hovering above his Driscoll Software notepad, to watch the snow swirling outside his window. Then, decisively, the ballpoint descended: More stamps. The phone rang, and he reached for it, his mind still on his to-do list. What am I forgetting? "This is Tim O'Connell," he said. The conversation that followed drove all holiday thoughts from his mind. Twenty minutes later he put the handset back in its cradle. The Client That Stole Christmas Chewing a large bite of turkey sandwich, Kristen Hammersmith pressed her palms together behind her back, relishing the series of cracks and pops between her shoulders. It had been a long year, and she'd spent too much of it hunched over this desk. She believed that Driscoll did important work -- building reliable, if expensive, software for businesses whose systems couldn't afford to fail -- but it could be stressful. Sometimes she had nightmares about a bug in the Driscoll system that operated airplane landing gear. The past few months had seen more turmoil than usual. Kristen's boss, Alessandra Sandoval, had decamped to set up her own business as a technical consultant. The move had come as a relief, because Alessandra and Tim, the unit head, didn't exactly mesh. Tim was a classic software geek -- methodical, khaki-clad, and, unless you were cracking jokes about binary code, fairly reserved. He had been visibly uncomfortable with Alessandra's...
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...January 30, 2015 Mrs. Sharrett AP Literature Contrasting Customs As new generations are born they begin to set their own ways, rules, and customs that can be complete opposite of an older generation’s customs. The view towards changing customs can differ greatly because while some may enjoy change, others prefer their thoughts, ideas and settings stay constant. The author of New Year’s Day uses a play on words, strong imagery, and diction to argue how vastly different past generations customs were compared to the generations that followed. The piece from ‘New Year’s Day’ speaks not only about how the celebration of a holiday has changed, but also the entire mind set and attitude of younger generations. “They used to meet at the Fifth Avenue Hotel”; how the precision of the phrase characterized my old New York!” Earlier generations held memories that later generations wouldn’t hold so dear. Sillerton Jackson, of the earlier generation claims, “Fifth Avenue Hotel? They might as well meet in the middle of Fifth Avenue nowadays, for all that anybody cares.” His statement vividly explains how different customs are by playing off of the earlier statement of Fifth Avenue with a vision of young adults at Fifth Avenue just standing around with no significance, compared to his generation that held Fifth Avenue as a grand place. The author uses diction in the piece to separate generations by creating the images of New Year’s celebrations. As opposed to grand celebrations, such as those...
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...Thingyan festival – Water Festival – Myanmar New Year - in April The country Myanmar is Known as the "Golden Land" in the world since every pagoda is decorated and painted with gold. Myanmar is full of very colourful and deep rooted festivals. There are 13 most popular year around festivals in Myanmar. One of them is the celebration on Thingyan Festival, as the Water Festival or Myanmar's Traditional New Year Festival. Myanmar people celebrate the Water Festival all over the country for 4 days before New Year day by throwing water on each other. It takes place on April13th to April 16th of every year. It is believed that Water Festival washes away sins and welcomes the New Year, April 17th. The Mandats, water throwing and playing places with the large signboards are every where, not only in the cities but also in the villages. In major cities such as Yangon, garden hoses, huge syringes made of bamboo, plastic water pistols, bowls, cups and other devices from which water can be squirted are used. All these whole days, people are going round to the Mandats with their bicycles, motorbikes, opentop jeeps and trucks to play the water with each other. It is a hottest time of the year and a good dousing is welcomed by most. Everyone is fair game except the monks and obviously pregnant women. After playing around and having fun throughout the country, people welcome the New Year on the 17th by cleaning the floors of the pagodas and monasteries, washing old and aged peoples' hair...
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...electronic technology with psychology in the marketplace. As we enter the New Year, it’s time to reflect on the year gone by and plan for the next twelve months. For smedio, it’s a time to celebrate our success over the last year and put our heads down for the challenges that lie ahead in year 2016. 2015 was a phenomenal year for the smedio community as we established ourselves as a formidable force in the digital marketing segment. We received a lot of healthy feedback from our users and several new members emphasized the need for us to get down to the basics of digital marketing and marketing in general. Therefore, we begin the New Year with an introductory post on what is digital marketing. We talk about the underlying principle behind digital marketing, the means, the end and the ongoing evolution from a business as well as marketer’s perspective. We’ll make a conscious effort to stay away from technical jargon and uncover digital marketing in simple and easy to understand terms. What is Digital Marketing? I usually refrain from using textbook definitions as I believe they are good to memorize but offer little insights. To me, digital marketing is using techniques which allow a marketer to use the best of both worlds – digital and marketing. While the basic principles of marketing still apply, digital marketing isn’t just another new channel for marketing. On the contrary, it’s a refreshingly new approach to marketing which offers a unique understanding of consumer...
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...boundaries marked? The area of local business and shops, far from the greater global market force, marks some of the physical boundaries of Miyamoto. The shops in Miyamoto deal mainly with daily goods. Another physical boundary is that of the houses and apartments marked by close and narrow passageways inaccessible by car and fire equipment. A spiritual boundary of Miyamoto is marked my sacred shrines important throughout festivals and parades specific to celebrations. 3. People of Miyamoto celebrate several rituals over the course of the year. What’s one of those rituals? What happens during the ritual? One of the many rituals celebrated by the people of Miyamoto is New Years that marks the end of the old year and the beginning of a new. It is a celebration to allow all people to become renewed. During this time there is a pause in business. The people of Miyamoto gather at shrines to offer prayers and good comings for the New Year. Many people bring belongings to be burned when a drumbeat struck midnight to...
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...Renee: (looking around) Every year it's the same old New Year's Eve party, same old people. Lacey: Who are you calling old? Renee: You know what I mean. Nothing ever changes. Rapper ZZZ: Yo! What you sayin? I wore different shoes last year. Gabby: I'm changing something this year. Mike: What? Fur coats? Everyone laughs haughtily Gabby: No. Well yes, actually. I'm making a New Year's Resolution not to eat c Renee: (gasps) Are you sure you want to do that? Gabby: I'm sure. It's not like I'm giving up all my designers, just a few. I want to limit myself to 2-3 new outfits a week. Marcus: (to Mike) How much was she buying before? Mike: She'd usually come home with that many a day. Lacey: But what about shoes? I just heard Manolo Blahnik (MA-no-low Bah-lon-ick) is coming out with a whole new line of jungle prints. You don't want to miss that! Gabby: Girl, I didn't say I was I crazy. Of course I'll be buying those shoes! Every pair! Peter: Are those the ones that cost like $500 a pair? Mike: That's barely the starting price. She's got this one pair that was almost $1500. And that was a bargain! Lacey: No price is too high for Manolo Blahniks! But, I have to say you've inspired me, Gabby. I want to make a New Year's Resolution too. Peter: This ought to be good. Lacey: I' m going to cut back on my diamonds. Peter: Really? Lacey: Yes. I spend thousands of dollars on necklaces and rings but I can't possibly wear them all. I've got so...
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...America I’m Canadian so I’ll start here. Typically, in the US and Canada we celebrate the end of the year and the beginning of the new year at a New Year’s Eve Party. The New Year’s Eve party might be a house party, social club party, restaurant/bar party or a public party hosted by a community (city or town). TypicalTraditions include: -Putting on your party best - Toasting with champagne at midnight - Fireworks displays - Wearing silly paper party hats and blowing noisemakers - Watching the crystal ball drop in New York City’s Time Square at midnight - Singing of “Auld Lange Syne” at midnight. Auld Lange Syne is a song of renewal and goodwill based on Robert Burns’ poem written in 1788 - Kissing the person next to you at midnight - Shaking hands and wishing a happy new year to those around you - Wishing people a happy new year for the next several days (the first time you see them) The biggest celebrations are in New York City’s Time Square in the US and for Canada, Nathan Philip’s Square in Toronto. Of course most cities in both countries have celebrations as well. Early New Year's Celebrations The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian...
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