Introduction
In this project we are going to work on the following topic: New Year.
New Year is the time when we begin another calendar year and we count another year more. It is celebrated all over the world in many different ways but following different kind of calendars.
From now on, we will discover quite more about this festivity and how is it carryed out depending on your country
Task
Your task is to gain knowledge about New Year. Concretely, you have to get a better understanding about the differences between countries like dates when it's celebrated, weather, seasons... Also about the different kinds of celebrations they do and with who they celebrate it.
Moreover, we will investigate how this festivity arises and why.
Using the websites that we provide you in the Procees page, you will be asked to discover many things about it. This process will take some time, as you will have to do a research and find specific facts and details.
Process
You are going to work this project in groups. Please, check out the steps taht are written down before doing your project. Hope you enjoy it!
First part
- Create a Word document and save it as NY + the name of your team.
- Now you have to create a little introduction explaing what your project is about.
- Afterwards, start searching information and answer the following questions with your own words (not copy-paste):
- When were the earliest New Year celebrations and where did they take place?
- When people began to develop their own calendars, to what events did they tie the beginning of a new year?
- Who instituted 1st January as the start of the New Year? When was it reintroduced as the beginning of the calendar year?
- What do Spanish people eat 12 just before midnight on New Year's Eve? What do they symbolize?
- What's the most famous symbol of the beginning of the New Year in the USA?
You can find this information in the following links:
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-years
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/newyearhistory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year
Second part
Each group will have a different country to focus their project and they will have to answer these questions according to the country they have. We will write down 4 different countries in some pieces of paper and we will put them in a bowl. One member of each team will have to pick up one paper and they will work on the country they get.
These are the questions that you have to answer according to your country:
1- What day do they celebrate New Year? Look for the tradition history.
2. What kind of calendar do they follow?
3. How many days is it celebrated?
4- What season of the year is it?What are they fancy to do to celebrate the New Year?
5-Whats the tradition to eat while the twelve bells ring? Look for the reason. Is there any typical food or drink for the last dinner of the year?
6- Is it an elegant day in which people wear fashion clothes? What kind of clothes are they used to wear?
7- Make a poem of one or two stanzas, wishing a Happy new year. One condition is that it have to appear the name of your country.
Here you can find many information about how is New Year's Eve celebrated in different countries:
http://www.123newyear.com/newyear-traditions/
http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poems/holiday/new-years/
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/new-year/customs.htm
http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/food-drinks/g2085/good-luck-foods-for-the-new-year/
http://www.best-country.com/new-year
Evaluation
We will evaluate two parts:
- The individual work of the common project, in which you have to search information about New Year.
- The group part in which each group has to present how is New Year's Eve celebrated in the country they focused on. We will evaluate that they have found all the necessary information and the presentation is clear, atractive and visual. We will take into account the way of how the group is organizated when exposing, if everybody participates for equal, the fluency when talking.
Conclusion
Through this project we have learnt all the cultural part of New Year from our country. Moreover, we have discovered different ways of celebrating it, depending on the country that you are.
We hope it has been a really wonderful experience and from now on, you will be able to explain to your family all the tradition of this festivity in New Year's Eve dinner.
