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Article: So What Are You Doing For Your New Year's Eve?; Traditions Include Jumping Out of a Plane
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 31, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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New Year's equals drunken parties, Dick Clark and the Rose Bowl,
right? Well, not so fast.
Those well-worn symbols of the holiday don't begin to convey the
wide range of annual traditions that Washington area residents have
developed to mark the new year.
Perhaps more than any other major holiday, Jan. 1 leaves
individuals and families free to devise their own meanings and
rituals -- traditions they may hold as dear as hanging stockings at
Christmas or watching fireworks on July 4.
"At New Year's, there's nothing to commemorate. That's why there's
a greater diversity of rituals than other holidays," said Suzanna
Walters, a sociology professor at Georgetown University. "People are
attaching ...