NON-STOP NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS

From Antarctica’s Icestock music festival to a pickle-drop in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, the world loves to party at new year. And it needn’t stop just because we're well into January.

Travel to Burghead, Scotland on January 11th to witness the pagan tradition of the Burning of the Clavie, where a flaming barrel is paraded through town, or to the Gwaun Valley in Wales, whose inhabitants snub the English-imposed Gregorian calendar system by celebrating Hen Galan on January 13th. Also on the 13th, you could don your fancy dress for Malanka in the Ukraine or wish friends a “Happy Old New Year” in Red (or even Trafalgar) Square.

January 26th is the first day of the lunar calendar, marking Chinese New Year, Korean Sol-Nal and Vietnam’s Tet Nguyen Dan. Parties and parades welcoming the Year of the Ox will take place in Chinatowns around the world, but if you’re in the Far East, head for Beijing’s temple fairs or Hong Kong’s harbour fireworks. Korea’s Sol-Nal is traditionally a family affair, but over in Vietnam, Tet is a noisy public occasion celebrated with drums and fireworks at midnight, followed by a more sedate trip to buy peach-blossom and kumquat trees at Ho Chi Minh City’s flower market.

Finally, you can follow Tibetan pilgrims to Lhasa on January 27th to join in the 15-day Losar festival, a deeply spiritual experience and a great chang-fuelled party—with not a giant pickle in sight. ~ CAROLINE CARTER

Picture credit: oskay (via Flickr)