I have no real attachment to celebrating the new year. When I was young, it was exciting to buy fireworks and search for leftovers long into the night. Later, I had work where I had to work on those days, and as an anarchist, I can’t help but see the relativism of all these celebrations. And I don’t know why that one day a year is chosen as some kind of turning point, mainly because most of the time, maybe all of the time, real changes happen on entirely arbitrary days. All these traditions come from your surroundings and are fed and seen mostly uncritically, the same traditions that make us anxious about foreigners and let us see women as something other than men, to name just two of the more nasty ones. Traditions are fascinating when you read about them in a history book. 

A part of relativizing your own (made-up) culture is realizing that what is normal for you is not normal for others.

1. Lunar New Year – Date varies (between January 21 and February 20)
2. Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year (date varies, usually in September)
3. Nowruz – Persian New Year (March 20 or 21)
4. Ethiopian New Year (Enkutatash) – September 11 (or 12 in a leap year)
5. Thai New Year (Songkran) – April 13-15
6. Burmese New Year (Thingyan) – April (date varies, typically mid-April)
7. Hindu New Year – Various dates depending on the region:
8. January 1 – Gregorian Calendar (widely celebrated globally)
9. Korean New Year (Seollal) – Date varies (between January 21 and February 20)
10. Tibetan New Year (Losar) – Date varies (usually in February or March)
11. Sikh New Year (Vaisakhi) – April 13 or 14
12. Bengali New Year (Pohela Boishakh) – April 14 or 15
13. Assamese New Year (Bohag Bihu) – April 14
14. Odia New Year (Maha Vishuba Sankranti) – April 14 or 15
15. Māori New Year (Matariki) – Date varies (usually in June or July)
16. Celtic New Year (Samhain) – October 31
17. Kazakh New Year (Nauryz Meyrami) – March 21