Happy New Year!

Not so fast! I am still waiting to declare my official 2020 new year’s resolution. Why the delay? The rat hasn’t arrived yet.

Say what? A newsflash. Almost every fifth person in the world is Chinese (China has 18.59% of the world’s population). When those guys yell, “Happy New Year,” you have to pay attention. And they don’t do it on January 1. In 2020, the Chinese New Year falls on January 25. And it is the year of the rat. I am not kidding. So if you are not in the mood on January 1, you can wait till the 25th to announce your resolution. As long as you can do it in Chinese.

Want to wait even longer? Don’t give up on the Chinese, yet. Their new year is a movable celebration because it is based on the lunar calendar. So new year’s day can fall anywhere from January 21 to February 20.

And what’s the deal with the animals? This year, 2020, is the year of the rat. Apparently, the Jade Emperor in ancient times decreed that animals would become part of the calendar, and 12 were chosen. These 12 make up the Chinese zodiac and each one stands for a year in a 12- year cycle. Interestingly, these animals can also be used to tell the time, although smartphones have made that kind of moot. For example, monkey signifies 3 pm – 5 pm. And if I say, “Be there at snake time,” better show up between 9 am to 11 am.

We think we are a party nation and celebrate the new year in style. The Chinese go a few steps farther. We go to Time Square on December 31st and wait for the ball to drop. The Chinese start preparing 8 days before new year’s day, and follow up for 11 days with the Spring Festival, which this year lasts from January 25th to February 4th. And they are still not done. The Lantern Festival follows for 4 more days. Most factories actually shut down for a full month!

Some people are in a hurry to usher in the new year. If you are one of them, fly over to the island nations of Tonga, Samoa, and Kiribati, where January 1st arrives the earliest. Why? Thank the more than 24 different time zones in the world! New Zealand follows next, and then Australia. Bakers Island is the last.

But even the folks who celebrate new year’s day on January 1st didn’t always do so. In ancient times, the Romans did this on or around April 1st. Why? It closely follows the vernal equinox on March 20th or 21st. In medieval times, the Feast of Annunciation (March 25th) was celebrated as the beginning of a new year in much of Europe. It was not until 1582 that Pope Gregory XIII ordered the replacement of the old Julian calendar with the new Gregorian calendar, and January 1st was declared the beginning of the year.

But you have options galore if you want to delay your celebrations or have multiple parties. The Korean new year, or Seollal, is celebrated pretty much on the same day as the Chinese new year, (every several years they are separated by one day). The Balinese new year, or Nyepi Day, will start at 6 am on March 25th in 2020. The Zoroastrian and Baha’i communities will celebrate their Nowruz on March 20th in 2020, while the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Telengana, and Andhra Pradesh, which waited till April 8th in 2016 to celebrate their new year, will be a little early this time: (March 25th ).

If you go to Sri Lanka on April 14th in 2020, you might think those guys are celebrating the eve of Tax Day. Not so. It will be the Sinhalese Buddhists and the Tamil Hindus ringing in their new year!

There are still people who have great difficulty in settling on a new year’s resolution in time. Well, if you are a Hindu, you can wait in 2020 till November 14th. That is Diwali, the beginning of the Hindu new year. And if you are still uncertain, there is always January 1, 2021. If you can’t decide by then, God help you!