http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year's_Day

New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome. With most countries using the Gregorian calendar as their main calendar, New Year's Day is the closest thing to being the world's only truly global public holiday, often celebrated with fireworks at the stroke of midnightas the new year starts. January 1 on the Julian calendar corresponds to January 14 on the Gregorian calendar, and it is on that date that followers of some of the Eastern Orthodoxchurches celebrate the New Year.

History

The Romans dedicated this day to Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. The month of January was named after Janus, who had two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backward. This suggests that New Year's celebrations are founded on pagan traditions. Some have suggested this occurred in 153 BC, when it was stipulated that the two annual consuls (after whose names the years were identified) entered into office on that day, though no consensus exists on the matter.^[1] Dates in March, coinciding with the spring equinox, or commemorating the Annunciation of Jesus, along with a variety of Christian feast dates were used throughout the Middle Ages, though calendars often continued to display the months in columns running from January to December.

Among the 7th century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts at the New Year. This was a pagan custom deplored by Saint Eligius (died 659 or 660), who warned the Flemings and Dutchmen, "(Do not) make vetulas, [little figures of the Old Woman], little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [another Yule custom]." The quote is from the vita of Eligius written by his companion, Ouen.

Most countries in Western Europe officially adopted January 1 as New Year's Day somewhat before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. InEngland, the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25, was the first day of the new year until the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. The March 25 date was known as Annunciation Style; the January 1 date was known as Circumcision Style, because this was the date of theFeast of the Circumcision, being the eighth day counting from December 25 when Christ was believed to be born. This day was christened as the beginning of the New Year by Pope Gregory as he designed the Liturgical Calendar.^[citat

New Year's Days in other calendars

Main article: New Year

In cultures which traditionally or currently use calendars other than the Gregorian, New Year's Day is often also an important celebration. Some countries concurrently use the Gregorian and another calendar. New Year's Day in the alternative calendar attracts alternative celebrations of New year.

• Chinese New Year is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is the first day of the lunar calendar (but corrects for the solar every three years. Normally falls between 20 January and 20 February). It is celebrated in numerous countries such as Korea, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries that have Chinese heritage or follows the lunar calendar. It can also be seen internationally since the Chinese population is widely spread out. It is celebrated with plenty of good food, lucky red envelopes (filled with money), families, and many things red (which resembles good luck). Lion and dragon dance, drums, fireworks, firecrackers, and other entertainments will fill the streets. It is the favorite holiday for many Chinese adults and children.

• Hindu New Year falls at the time and date Sun enters Aries on the Hindu calendar. (Normally on 14 April or 13 April depending on Leap year). Hindus celebrate the new year by paying respects to their parents and other elders and seek their blessings. They also exchange tokens of good wishes for healthy and prosperous year ahead.

• Islamic New Year moves from year to year because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar.

• Israel is one country that uses the Gregorian calendar but does not formally celebrate the New Year's holiday — mainly due to objections by religious parties on the holiday's non-Jewish origins.^{[citation needed]} However, there are Israeli Jews who partake in some sort of celebration. The date of the Jewish new year is celebrated on Rosh Hashanah no matter where the location.

• Japanese New Year in Japan is celebrated on January 1 because the Gregorian calendar is now used instead of the Chinese calendar.

• Nowruz which has been celebrated for over 3,000 years, is celebrated and observed by Iranian people and the related cultural continentand has spread in many other parts of the world, including parts of Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China, the Crimea and some groups in the Balkans. Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst the Zoroastrian ancestors of modern Iranians, the same time is celebrated in the Indian sub-continent as the new year. The moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and Iranian families gather together to observe the rituals.

Quarterlife Crisis :I

Here is an article by Winnie Choa in The Cavalier Daily at The University of Virginia.

The link to the article is:

Getting out alive at 25 or http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=23074&pid=1284



Getting out alive at 25

As graduation approaches, fourth years are plagued by the same questions that dominate the thoughts of twenty somethings all over the country: What do I do after college? Do I want to focus on a career or family first? Should I do something I love or something that will make me money? And perhaps most importantly, what do I do with my life?

Fourth-year College student Katy Shrum is questioning what her plans for after graduation are.

“All of a sudden, I felt old,” Shrum said. “My life flashed before me and I had no idea what my career options were.”

This phenomenon, commonly known as the quarterlife crisis, the subject of Jason Steinle’s new book, “Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings.”

The quarterlife crisis, Steinle explains, is a stage people in their teens and twenties go through as they leave the stability and sanctuary of the home to enter the real world. Without the structure of college life, many students are forced to face the unpredictability of life beyond the classroom. A vast majority try to recreate the controlled foundation of their college lives by planning every step of their future. Promotion by 25, married by 27, first child by 30.

Shrum is all too familiar with the quarterlife crisis, having experienced one earlier this year when applying to graduate school.

“When you get to a point where you’re heading out on your own, there are people who are getting married and people are expecting that, expecting you to have a plan for the rest of your life,” she said. “Officially you’re out of your teenage years. You realize you have to be responsible but you’re not and it’s scary.”

The problem with putting life on a calendar to stay on track with career goals and financial aims is the sheer unpredictability of the real world. Statistics support Steinle’s claim that college graduates do not have their lives together and, in fact, don’t even know where to begin.

Pop quiz. Which of the following is true?

a)Polls show 50 to 95 percent of Americans are unsatisfied in their current jobs.

b)The average college graduate has more than eight jobs from the age of 22 to the age of 32.

c)Divorce rates are highest for couples married in their teens and early twenties.

d)Drug and alcohol abuse is highest for teens and twenty-year-olds.

e)All of the above.

The correct answer is E, a point Jason Steinle focuses heavily on in his book. According to Steinle, many of the questions quarterlifers find themselves conflicted about can be solved through a process known as “upload experiencing,” or using the life skills and knowledge of another person and applying them to one’s own life. “Upload experiencing” is not the same as living vicariously through another person, but rather it’s a way of connecting to somebody else’s experiences and using them to make life decisions.

Steinle uses “The Matrix” as an analogy to explain “upload experience.” In the movie, the main character, Neo, has the knowledge of martial arts uploaded into his mind, which he then uses in his own experiences. Steinle adapts this science fiction concept to explain his research on the quarterlife crisis.

“The ultimate ‘central center’ to upload information into is our body, mind, spirit,” said the 28-year-old author, who is himself a quarterlifer. “In my opinion this is how all true learning and growth occurs.”

Steinle helped found the Health and Harmony Chiropractic and Wellness Center in Colorado when he was 24, after earning his doctorate in chiropractic. To build community awareness, he hosted weekly health education awareness lectures (H.E.A.L. talks). One Wednesday evening, a local radio show host was a member of his audience and invited Steinle to be a guest on his show, which led to an opportunity for Steinle to host his own show. After two years of working with radio, Steinle was given a chance to appear on television.

Despite his success, Steinle said he was still asking himself what he wanted out of life and what he wanted to do with his career. The questions led him to more questions, specifically interviews with other quarterlifers, to find out their experiences and how closely those mimicked his own. Steinle spent four years asking people about their experiences and interviewing quarterlifers to try to understand what caused the phenomenon and what could be done to overcome it.

A constant theme he found in the interviews was the utter focus individuals had on finding the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the perfect children, and knowing when and how to reach their life goals. He said he observes many post-college graduates believe they have only one chance at success, and if they miss one opportunity, then their life plans have been foiled and ruined. In turn, this places a tremendous amount of stress on the individual to get everything right.

The typical quarterlifer might say: “I have to get this internship so I can get the right job. I need the right job so I can make the right connections and be promoted. Once I’m promoted, I can be successful and focus on my family.”

This is the exact type of thinking Steinle claims is the cause of the quarterlife crisis. His research also involved interviews with men and women as old as their 60s, which revealed a distinction that he uses as evidence of his theory.

“The truth is as I’ve interviewed people in their 40s, 50s and 60s plus, they are facing the same questions as the over 300 quarterlifers I’ve interviewed,” Steinle said. “The difference is that older generations are more comfortable with the uncertainty of not knowing what the next step will be.”

He emphasizes that the pressure quarterlifers place on themselves to get it right the first time is the very thing his book is trying to address.

In “Upload Experience,” each of the thirty chapters take on one of the thirty questions that Steinle theorizes quarterlifers are in crisis over. With questions ranging from “Is life fair?” to “Where should I live?” Steinle offers case studies and anecdotes to emphasize his points.

In “Am I with the right one?” he offers an example of a man who meets his wife only when he’s not looking for her, especially after a number of other relationships.

In “How can I overcome the feeling of being stuck?” he presents the story of a woman who takes it upon herself to try new things and engage in activities that interest her, and the opportunities that inevitably follow.

To Steinle, the quarterlife crisis is just another stage in life that an individual can remain in for months or years, depending on the attitude he takes. “Upload Experience” is Steinle’s effort to share the research and knowledge he’s gathered over the past few years to ease the transition from college into the real world, and to relieve some of the pressure teens and twentysomethings may feel to always making the right decision.

Specifically for college graduates, Steinle offers four words of advice:

1. What is the worst that can happen?

2. What is the best that can happen?

3. What is most likely to happen?

4. Am I willing to live with the worst in order to have a shot at the best?


Posted in Graduation Articles, Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions in the news..., Quarterlife Articles |

i just happened to read this article and i thought it would be great if i post it here for you to read, although it's not that informative or whatsoever, it could make us, let's say, "WONDER and THINK".. LOL! :))




HAPPY GRADUATION AND CONGRATS BATCH 2010! :pp

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF GROWN UPS! :))

Extending our CONDOLENCES to the Family of GILBERT GANZE who died yesterday, MARCH 14, 2010.
MAY HE REST IN PEACE!

Bakasyon na! Summer na! Pa-PANDAN na!

Mga kaBlog, summer na summer na!

It's time to go home and experience the joy of spending the summer vacation in Pandan!

Kita-kits everyone!

Oratio Imperata

Laman ng mga balita ang sobrang pag-init ng panahon dito sa Pilipinas. Ang El Nino phenomenon ay lubhang nakaaapekto ngayon sa napakaraming kababayan natin sa iba't ibang lugar sa bansa. Namamatay na ang mga isda sa sobrang init, nababawasan ang tubig sa mga dam na nagsusuplay ng tubig sa maraming kabahayan, natutuyo ang mga pananim, at nagkakaroon ng mga sakit. Sa mga panahong katulad nito, sama-sama tayong manalangin bilang isang bansa sa Kanya na siyang tanging makakapitan natin sa ating mga pangangailangan.

ORATIO IMPERATA

Almighty Father, we raise our hearts to You in gratitude for the wonders of creation of which we are part, for Your Divine Providence in sustaining our needs, and for Your Wisdom that guides the course of the universe.

As we face typhoons, floods, volcanic and other calamities we trustingly seek Your help, aware that You are the Master of Creation.

We acknowledge that as an entire humanity we have not been good stewards of Nature. We have confused Your command to subdue the earth.

The environment is made to suffer our wrongdoing, and now we reap the harvest of abuse and indifference.

Global warming is upon us. Natural calamities occur in increasing numbers and intensity.

We turn to You, our loving Father, and beg forgiveness for our sins.

We humbly beg that we be spared from the dire consequences of calamities.

We beseech You to inspire us all to grow into responsible stewards of Your creation, and generous neighbors to those in need.

Amen.

(Prayer copied from http://www.op.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26594&Itemid=38)

Entertainment Polls

The latest in the show business.. Pwede nang pagbotohan! Check the polls at the right side of YMP.blogspot.com..

My Valentine's Prayer

I'm really having a hard time thinking of what would be the best valentine article for this blog. So I decided to share this prayer to all our kablogs who are celebrating their valentine's day without a special someone.

PRAYER FOR A SUITABLE PARTNER IN LIFE

Loving and wise Father,
I pray for the light
of Your wisdom and guidance
as I search for friendship
that will lead me to find
my suitable partner in life.
Help me to patiently wait for the right person
who will be my companion for all my life.
Bless me Lord,
that I myself may grow in these virtues:
deep respect for life and for people,
kindness, sincerity and generosity.
Teach me to become unselfish
and forgiving of others.
I ask for the grace
to be prepared for the commitment
that I will eventually make
to the particular person
who will be Your gift to me.
Lord, accompany me all the days of my life.
Draw me closer to you so that I will be able
to discern your will for me.
Give me the courage to decide
not according to what others want,
not even according to what I alone want.
But may I always place my desires
in accord with the designs of Your heart
so that I may experience real peace and joy
that can only come from You.
Amen.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!