23 Fascinating New Year’s Day Facts That’ll Surprise you

1Hollyweed

Hollyweed

On New Year's Day, 1976, a man named Danny Finegood changed the Hollywood sign to "Hollyweed" as a college prank in order to celebrate the decriminalization of marijuana and got an "A" for it.


2Shortest commercial flight

Shortest commercial flight

The world's first commercial airline flight occurred on 1 January 1914 when the former mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, flew 21 miles (34 kilometers) to Tampa, Florida. The flight took 23 minutes. Ordinarily, the trip would have taken 2 hours by steamship or 4 hours or more by rail.


31999 video

1999 video

On January 1, 1999, MTV2 played the music video "1999" by Prince continuously all day.


4Pour Féliciter

Pour Féliciter

Wishing “P.F.” on the New Year is a tradition only known in Czechia and Slovakia, even though PF is a French abbreviation that stands for “pour féliciter” meaning “to congratulate.”


5Black-eyed peas

Black-eyed peas

The reason southerners eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is because during Sherman's bloody march to the sea the only thing northerners didn't loot or burn were black-eyed peas, thus making them the primary source of food.


6Korean birthday

Korean birthday

In Korea, everyone is 1 from the time they are born and everyone gets a year older on New Year's Day. So your Korean age is always either one or two years older than your Western age.


7Salad tossing

Salad tossing

In Malaysian-Chinese culture, the new year is commemorated by tossing a salad.


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8Longplayer

Longplayer

Longplayer is a composition that comprises of six short pieces of music designed to play without repetition for 1,000 years. It began playing on January 1, 2000, and will end on December 31, 2999. Its permanent home is Trinity Bouy Wharf in London, and it can be streamed online.


9King slap

King slap

The people of ancient Babylon celebrated the new year by slapping the king in the face. If he cried, it was considered a blessing from the Gods.


10New Year

New Year

In 45 B.C., the New Year was moved from March 1 to January 1. Then December 25 was set as the beginning of the New Year. Then it was changed to March 25. Between 1582 and 1752 there were two calendars. Gregorian then replaced the Julian Calendar and January 1 became the legal New Year.

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