![]() ![]() People clean their houses, wear new clothes, and bang loudly on pots and pans at midnight. For instance, in predominantly Shia Muslim Iran, the Persian New Year begins on March 20, the traditional first day of spring. For most Muslims, Hijri is a quiet day of reflection, but customs vary widely from country to country depending upon their pre-Islamic history and traditions. Because the Islamic year is based on the lunar calendar, which is eleven days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Day (Hijri) is a moveable feast observed on the first day of the lunar month of Muharram. New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Islamic world are more complicated. In the westernized world, which follows the solar-based Gregorian calendar, the New Year begins on January 1 (see sidebar), but in countries and cultures following a lunar-based calendar, religious calendar, or an agricultural calendar, it might be celebrated in September or October (Jewish), February (Chinese), or in March or April, as it in Iran and Sri Lanka. The transition from the old year to the new is celebrated worldwide, but it is not always celebrated on the same day. New Year’s Day in China is still called the “Spring Festival.” The “New Year,” as far as ordinary people were concerned, began at the first sign of spring, not on some arbitrary date on the calendar. Whether it’s beating the walls with bread loaves in Ireland, burning scarecrows in Ecuador, smashing old dishes in Denmark, or ringing temple bells 108 times in Japan, New Year’s Eve around the world is a very noisy public event full of fire and adult-beverage-fueled revelry.īefore there was widespread literacy and organized religions, people followed the rhythm of the natural world – the seasons, the animals, and the heavenly bodies – to mark the passage of time. People destroy symbols of the past year at midnight (like our Old Man Time with the scythe and hourglass), and make a lot of noise to scare off evil spirits and bad luck.Īnd echoes of those ancient customs persist in New Year’s Eve celebrations today. New Year’s Eve is the oldest of public celebrations throughout history, originally welcoming the rebirth of springtime. Passions undreamed of await us–and my enemies gather, for the future of both courts of faerie begins to unravel.New Year's Eve Party Out with the Old Year, in with the NewĪcross the world, the beginning of the New Year is marked by unique customs and festivals, banishing the hardships and bad luck of the past year, and ushering in hope for health, happiness, and prosperity. The gentlest of my guards will find new strength and break my heart. The Darkness will weep, and Frost will comfort him. My guards and I will show all of faerie that violence and sex are as popular among the sidhe as they are among the lesser fey of our court. ![]() I will find new joys with the butterfly-winged demi-fey. Pain and pleasure await me–and danger, as well, for some at that court seek only death. Our passion will reawaken powers long forgotten among the warriors of the sidhe. I need my allies now more than ever, especially since fate will lead me into the arm of Mistral, Master of Storms, the queen’s new captain of her guard. The threat will drive us to allow human police into faerie for the first time in our history. Enemies unforeseen move against us–enemies who would murder the least among us. Some Unseelie nobles have waited centuries for my aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, to become weak enough that she might be toppled from her throne. ![]() But not all the assassination attempts are his. My cousin Cel strives to have me killed even now from his prison cell. But at what price does such magic come? How much of my human side will I have to give up, and how much of the sinister side of faerie will I have to embrace? To sit on a throne that has ruled through bloodshed and violence for centuries, I might have to become that which I dread the most.Įnemies watch my every move. The Unseelie Court infuses me with its power. I am Meredith Gentry, P.I., solving cases in Los Angeles, far from the peril and deception of my real home–because I am also Princess Meredith, heir to the darkest throne faerie has to offer.
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