Bizarre New Year’s traditions and the best way to begin the year
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As we welcome in 2025 and a new year, we look to bizarre good luck traditions around the world, from dropping apples to wearing polka dots to hanging onions on your door. In an effort to feel more in control of life, we find comfort in the fact that Jesus’ manhood was just as human as you and I. We look today at how Jesus modeled full faith in God for bringing not good luck but God’s will to his ministry. The same is available to you and to me.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Happy New Year. It's Wednesday, January the 1st, 2025, and this is the Daily Article Podcast. |
| 0:09.9 | I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by friend and Denison Forum co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. |
| 0:19.4 | If you want good luck in the new year, in Brazil, jump over seven waves while serving. |
| 0:26.5 | In the Philippines, wear clothing with polka dots. |
| 0:30.1 | I'm out of luck here. |
| 0:31.6 | In Greece, hang onions outside your door. |
| 0:34.7 | In Puerto Rico, throw a bucket of water out your window. In Ireland, put |
| 0:39.7 | mistletoe under your pillow. In Canada, go ice fishing. In the U.S., watch the ball drop in New York |
| 0:47.6 | City's Times Square. Speaking of dropping things to bring in the new year, Manhattan, Kansas, |
| 0:56.6 | dropped a giant apple last night. |
| 1:04.3 | Not to be outdone, St. George's Bermuda dropped a giant onion, while Boise, Idaho dropped a giant illuminated potato, of course. If you step back and look at such strange practices objectively, you'll admit that they are indeed strange. |
| 1:14.4 | Why would presumably sane people do such bizarre things? |
| 1:18.8 | One answer is that New Year's traditions give us a way to feel more in control of what is ultimately uncontrollable. |
| 1:30.5 | The future. When we do what we know to do, |
| 1:37.3 | we hope, however, naively, that we are doing something to influence the unknowable. And, of course, |
| 1:43.7 | millions are making resolutions to begin 2025 as well. Here we believe we are acting in a more practical way, choosing behaviors we can |
| 1:46.7 | influence to improve our lives and our world. However, only 9% of those who make such resolutions |
| 1:54.1 | keep them through the year. In this context, an Atlantic headline caught my eye, |
| 2:00.3 | A Diet Writer's Regrets. The author has written on Diet and Health for 30s. context, an Atlantic headline caught my eye, a diet writer's regrets. |
| 2:02.6 | The author has written on diet and health for 30 years and struggled mightily with her |
| 2:07.5 | weight before finally taking weight loss drugs. |
| 2:10.9 | Her story shows that resolution and good intentions often are not enough. |
... |
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