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Show Wanted People's Best Wishes King Tatius Given Credit For Well Wishing at Start of New Year. Our New Year's Day customs date back to a gentleman who may never have even existed to the legendary King Tatius and his desire to have people wish him good luck. His subjects gathered branches of vervain ver-vain in the sacred grove of the goddess god-dess of strength, Strenua, and presented pre-sented them to him on New Year's Day. Kings and common men thought well of the idea and in the old days before Uiristmas Became established as the gift-giving day-New day-New Year's was marked by an exchange ex-change of presents and good wishes. Our ancestors thought drinking to each other's health on New Year's Day a somewhat less than burdensome burden-some duty and took to it wholeheartedly. wholeheart-edly. Ia colonial times, the master of the house brewed his own punch for the occasion and ladled it out himself him-self to those who wished him well. I ; '4w. , During the Commonwealth in England, Eng-land, the custom of offering New' Year's gifts to the sovereign died and was not revived at the Restoration. Restora-tion. Gradually, the commoners adopted the same attitude about presents for each other in democratic demo-cratic America particularly, because the giving; of gifts to the king had been practically a levy. But the punch bowl lingered on. i Once the church bells rang and trumpets blew so that colonials might wake from their straw couches and know a new year was born. All over the world now, the year awakes with a squall and a din so that wherever you are, in Jungle, desert or on sea. this is one time of year when you need no eyes, only ears, to tell it is midnight Church bells still ring and maybe trumpets still blow, but people are not sure about it, so they buy noise-makers to help along and also toiet their feelings out through their mouths. Thus, you have New Year's Ive and its many and varied traditions. |