At London's New Year's Day Parade, also known as the "Rose Parade"

 "... Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away...." Funny How Time Slips Away lyrics

-- Willie Nelson
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(on a festive holiday celebrated all around the world) The tradition of celebrating a New Year began 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, where people celebrated each year with an 11-day festival. Even back then, they made New Year’s resolutions. People believed that making commitments to improve themselves helped to make sure the gods would remain happy with the kingdom. During that time, the celebration took place in March, but a new calendar was introduced more than 1,000 years later in Ancient Rome.

+ The first day of January now represents the fresh start of a new year after a period of remembrance of the passing year, including on radio, television, and in newspapers. Publications have year-end articles that review changes during the previous year. There are also articles on planned or expected changes in the coming year. This day is traditionally a religious feast, but since the 1900s, it has also become an occasion to celebrate the night of 31 December-- New Year's Eve -- with parties, public celebrations (often involving fireworks shows) and other traditions focused on the impending arrival of the new year. (Watchnight services are also still observed in many places.)

+ The celebrations and activities held worldwide on 1 January, as part of New Year's Day, commonly include major parades on New Year's Day, including the London's New Year's Day Parade, Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade (also known as the "Rose Parade"), and Philadelphia's Mummers Parade. (In the Bahamas, it is also associated with Junkanoos.)

+ Beginning in the 2010s, it is also the day that First Day Hikes take place in the fifty state park systems of the United States.

+ The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra traditionally performs a New Year's concert on the morning of New Year's Day.

+ A "polar bear plunge" is a common tradition in some countries, where participants gather on beaches and run into the cold water. Polar Bear Clubs in many Northern Hemisphere cities have a tradition of holding organized plunges on New Year's Day (and they are often held to raise money for charity).

+ In Ireland, New Year's Day was called Lá na gCeapairí, or the day of the buttered bread. An alleged meaning to the consumption of buttered bread was to ward off hunger and famine in the coming year, by placing the buttered bread on the doorstep in the morning. Some traditions saw parties of young people calling from house to house to receive buttered bread, or to give out buttered bread in exchange for pennies. (This tradition has since died out, having been popular in the 19th century, but waning in the 1930s and 1940s.)

+ In Japan, Korea and areas inhabited by the Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, Chukchi and the Iñupiat, watching the first sunrise is a tradition.

+ In the United Kingdom and United States, New Year's Day is associated with several prominent sporting events.