My New Year's Eve in Taipei 101

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For other articles with similar names, see New Year (disambiguation).


New Year's Eve is on December 31, the final day of the Gregorian year, and the day before New Year's Day.
New Year's Eve is a separate observance from the observance of New Year's Day. In 21st-century Western practice, New Year's Eve is celebrated with parties and social gatherings spanning the transition of the year at midnight.
Many cultures use fireworks and other forms of noise making in part of the celebration. Some of the cities most well-known for their celebrations include Edinburgh, Sydney, Toronto, Moscow, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and New York City.
New Year's Eve is a public non-working holiday in the following countries, among others: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Greece, the Philippines, and Venezuela.


Localized celebrations:

Taiwan :
Many people in Taiwan celebrate the end of the year with concerts in most of the cities and recently using a big screen on the stage to communicate with cities around the island by shouting Happy New Year to each other. The most crowded city is the capital Taipei where most people gather around Taipei 101 located in the shopping and financial area. People gather around the roads around Taipei 101 and together they shout from 10 to zero. With each number they count, one of the layers of Taipei 101 (eight floors per layer) lights up until zero, the fireworks shoot out from the top of each layer (8 layers excluding a layer under the antenna) in different directions.


United States :
In the United States, New Year's Eve is a major social holiday. One of the top destination cities for New Year's Eve from 2003 to 2006 has been New York, according to hotwire.com. [1] Las Vegas is also attracting a large number of New Year's Eve party goers with the famous Las Vegas strip being closed to vehicles and buses.
In the past 100 years the "ball dropping" on top of One Times Square in New York City, broadcast to all of America (and rebroadcast in many other countries), is a major component of the New Year celebration. The 1,070-pound, 6-foot-diameter Waterford crystal ball located high above Times Square is lowered, starting at 23:59:00 and reaching the bottom of its tower at the stroke of midnight (00:00:00).This is repeated for all four time zones. It is sometimes referred to as "the big apple" like the city itself; the custom derives from the time signal that used to be given at noon in harbors.
From 1981 to 1988, New York City dropped an enlarged apple in recognition of its nickname. Since 1972, Dick Clark has hosted televised coverage of the event called Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, shown on ABC-TV. From 1956 to 1976 on CBS-TV, Guy Lombardo (who died in 1977) and his Royal Canadians serenaded the United States from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in New York City. The Royal Canadians continued on CBS-TV until 1978. The song Auld Lang Syne has become a popular song to sing at midnight on New Year's Eve.



Japan :
Main article: Ōmisoka
The day is a preparation day to welcome toshigami (年神), new year's god. Therefore, traditionally, people clean their home and prepare Kadomatsu and/or Shimenawa to welcome the god before New Year's Eve.
Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times [1] on midnight, during 31 December to 1 January. This bell rings are called as joya no kane (除夜の鐘) in Japanese which means "Night removing bell rings." Each bell rings represent 108 elements of bonnō (煩惱), defilements, or Kilesa in Sanskrit, which is said people have in their mind. The bells are rung to repent 108 of the bonnō.
On TV, the Red and White Year-end Song Festival is a 50-year-old tradition involving a singing contest between male and female teams of celebrity singers

Article From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve
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Lol…the video is in the 2008 in Taipei 101. The firework is really beautiful and spectacular in that time when we stand near the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall.

It was said that the last time firework appear in Taipei. We go to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall at 9 o’clock and cover the land with the newspapers. The waiting time is so long that we play the cards for fun! And we can’t leave there together because if we go, other people come and occupy the site we done. Also we couldn’t come in the site anymore because there are around thousands of people there.

I think the waiting time for the firework is interesting. Because I and my friends will talking about the recent or current situation after we left and go to the different university. It’s valuable for me with my good friend to welcome the New Year. Even we are so tired in the all day, and our feet have like the mashed potato.

In fact, the firework was not gone sour for us. It’s so charming and affecting with the near fifty thousands of people in the same place to greet 2008! And the video also recorded the idiot voice from my friends and everyone’s bravo. This is become a important memory in my life.

The second unforgettable thing is that when the firework finished. And everyone’s target is the same-“Exit”. Oh! That’s terrible and crowded in the way everywhere. The only advantages is that we didn’t have to walk because the people back will push us along…and the crowded is warm(that night was only below ten degrees Celsius….). And the MRT was stuffed in every station…. So, we start to walk from The Eastern to Taipei train station…. That’s a crazy idea but also was the only one in that time for home. We back to Yangmingshan in the morning at 6o’clock. It was a blink fall into sleep when we touched the comfortable bed. But It’s best New Year time in my life. And after I found the article it let me known thecelebration of many countries in New Year.