December 31, 2020 • 30 mins
What a year, right? If you're listening to today's episode, you have (almost) officially survived. I'm ringing in 2021 with Noel, Casey and the rest of our Ridiculous Historians in this, the second part of our exploration into the very old roots of very New Years.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Holy Smokes,
(00:28):
it's the end of I never thought this day would
come again. Yeah, it's part two of the end of
part it's part two with Yes. So we're joining ourselves
in our future selves, our future selves, which will be
important later. We're joining our future selves as you're listening
(00:49):
our past selves as we're recording for part two of
New Year's Traditions throughout history and around the world. Let's
join in already in progress. Nowadays, if you make a
New Year's resolution in the West, you're probably not going
to be making this as a covenant with a god
(01:10):
or a divine entity. Instead, in this increasingly secular society,
you're going to make a resolution to yourself. You're going
to say, you know, this is the year that I
finally finished that novel, or this is the year that
I stopped buying avocados in bulk because God knows I'm
not going to eat all of them and whatever it is.
(01:32):
H So you focus on self improvement. But unfortunately, and
I have a hack for this, we'll give you the
problem first. Unfortunately, it seems that almost half of the
people in the US say they usually make New Year's resolutions.
Fort However, Noel, as we know, uh, not all of
(01:53):
them are successful. You saw that stat, right, The rate
of follow up is got to be in the nineties, right,
and then in the negative. Only eight percent of people
actually successfully achieve their goals. Um. And it's not really
showing any signs of like putting the kai bosh on
(02:16):
New Year's resolutions anytime soon, because we really have this
is something that we've been doing for thousands and thousands
of years. Um. But I'd like to get into in
a little bit, Uh, why psychologically it's so difficult to
keep these New Year's resolutions. Yeah, yeah, I've got some
stuff on that. I've got a I've got an unfounded
life hack to just real real quickly. I think a
(02:39):
lot of us sometimes feel a cultural pressure to change
ourselves or our habits due to this somewhat arbitrary day
on the calendar, and feeling like you have to do
that may play a role in falling off whatever your
new wagon is just a few days or months later.
(03:01):
So I propose that if you're listening to this podcast
and you have had in the his in the past,
the tough time sticking with the new Year's resolution. Why
bother with that one? Why not make a resolution on
your own personal New Year's which is your birthday. Then
it's more unique to you. Is something you won't see
a bunch of people posting about on the internet. Whether
(03:22):
your birthday is in March, the original New Year's I guess,
or whether it's in September or what have you. Uh,
Then it's a little more personal. And I think that
can help increase your odds of sticking with your goals.
But again, I have no research on this. It just
works for me. That's a great idea, and I love
it you always refer to everyone's birthday as there on
personal New year uh, And I think that is a
(03:44):
very smart way of going about it, you know. And
then why not let's just go ahead and let the
cat out of the bag. Now. We actually do have
a study from the University of Scranton that suggests why
only eight percent of people will actually, you know, follow
through with those goals. Um. And there's actually a clinical
psychology term UM to refer to the cycle of repeated
(04:08):
failure to change, and it's called the very dire and
sad sounding false hope syndrome. Gosh, that's an early like
emo pop punk song title. If ever I've heard one,
I can I can hear the winey vocals now. But
think about this for a second. So false hope syndrome
(04:30):
is a cyclical thing. We resolve to change. Uh. We
usually make a resolution to do something that we couldn't
do in the previous year, something we were not able
to achieve. Tim Pitchell was a psychologist at Carlton University
in Ottawa. He says that we're making new Year's goals
(04:52):
because we keep failing at a specific task, right. And
so the tricky thing is that making a new year
is resolution doesn't really require action from you. It doesn't
even require you saying it to anyone. Just the thought
hits those instant gratification switches in our brains. That's why
(05:14):
sometimes you'll notice that if you're talking to someone about
a creative project that you haven't done yet, you will
feel good and somewhat accomplished after that conversation, because in
our brains, talking about that thinking about it satisfies us.
If feel our brain doesn't know the difference between talking
about something and doing it. And therein lies the trap
(05:37):
right where it's almost like some people go to great
length to never talk about a project that they either
haven't finished or haven't even started. Um. Maybe it's not
consciously because of that thing, but I totally see what
you're saying. Like, I've had friends throughout the years that
love to talk up these big, grand plans, uh that
I know they will never actually follow through with. So
(05:57):
I think that it's probably pretty smart to actually wait
until you've done the thing before you start blabbing about it. Agreed,
and Uh, A lot of us listening to the podcast
today are nodding our heads in agreement as well, because,
let's be honest, folks, a lot of us learned that
one the hard way. There's another phenomenon here called effective forecasting.
(06:19):
That's when we use how we feel emotionally in the
present moment to predict how we will feel in the future.
And it makes sense. You know, you're making a New
Year's resolution, You're like, I am gonna stop listening to
Steely Dan four hours a day, and you feel good
about that in that moment you're free from Dan. So
(06:40):
you think I'm gonna feel good about this in the
future too, But will you Well, first of all, been
why would anyone want to free themselves from the glory
that is Steely Dan. I mean I could listen to
nothing but Steely I could listen to nothing but Deacon
Blues on repeat for the rest of my life and
be like a happy man. That's certainly a Desert Island
(07:00):
disc for me. And right now you probably feel really
solid and really happy saying that, right, But don't make
it a resolution. No, no, a resolution to listen to
nothing but Deacon Blues all year and repeat. I think
you would get How long would you give yourself of
that one to get sick of it? I I think
I could probably go. I mean, like, I wouldn't have
to listen to it. There'd be some caveats. I wouldn't
(07:22):
have to listen to it like seven. It would just
be the only song I could listen to when the
need to listen to music struck me. So I would
probably say I would could go maybe a month. Do
you think you could listen to uh to cover versions?
Just to like very little good? That's a good one.
There's a great new cover by um Bill Callahan and
uh Will Oldham, Bunny Prince Billy of Deacon Blues. Oh
(07:44):
my god, I'm out like a month or so ago.
I love both of That's really really good. All right,
stop the show. We're gonna listen to that Casey only
case Yeah, this is fascinating. All of this stuff checks out,
like I mean, you know, it's great to have scientific
data backing it up, but all of this stuff really
does makes sense, and I can feel it in myself,
and I think, you know, I always say self awareness
is is the first step to living a better life.
(08:07):
I coined that phrase, um, And I think as long
as you know yourself and you know what your tendencies are,
you can probably heads your bets a little bit when
it comes to making New Year's resolutions and not make
such a big symbolic act out of it, and maybe
just try to, you know, follow the Christians be just
try to be a little bit better this year, just
a little bit, you know. Yeah. I would argue, while
(08:30):
I agree with that, I would argue one thing our
society and civilization and maybe our species is missing is yes,
we all need self awareness, we need to be honest
with ourselves, but we also have a severe need for
awareness of others and consideration of others. I mean, that's
the problem we keep running into we are sometimes too
(08:54):
focused on ourselves, and that's where the neuroscience comes into play,
because the area of your brain associated with the idea
of you in the future is the same area associated
with thoughts about strangers. So if I'm present Ben and
I'm thinking of something for future Bien, maybe making a
nice duck cam fee or something like that, then that
(09:17):
guy in my head, according to the mechanisms of my brain,
is a stranger. I'm thinking about some dude, just some
random dude making duck coom fee. And this means that
we're not having as much empathy or understanding of our
future self as we should. We're aware of ourselves in
(09:38):
the present, but we're not self aware in the future.
If that makes sense this weird conversation, it makes a
lot of sense. No, no, no, it's a very abstract
way of looking at it. It makes absolute sense because
you're as such a remove from your future self that
it's almost like when you kind of, um, let's see,
(09:58):
you make plan that you don't really you're not super
excited about because you're making them for your future self,
and you don't really identify with your future self because
it's separate from your now self. So you can say, oh,
my future self will be fine with these plans that
I have made for him. But then future self becomes
present self and still doesn't like the plans or the idea,
(10:19):
and then we end up in a in a in
a vicious cycle of rescheduling or flaking. And this isn't
a mean thing. This is just a thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So,
now that we've looked at the neuroscience, which is a
little bit challenging, uh, let's let's go back to something
(10:39):
a little more fun. Let's let's bust out a few
more explorations of New Year's traditions around the world. What
do you say, Let's do it all right, So let's see. Uh,
you know, everywhere around the world, no matter where you go,
people love snacks, they love feasting, and often people eat
pork on New Year's in places like Cuba, Austria, Hungary,
(11:03):
Portugal and so odd they do that because in these
cultures pigs represent progress and prosperity. Isn't that interesting though,
that they devour their flesh rather than like, you know,
revere them and to take them around on little leashes.
What was that thing we we had the chimney sweeps
in the pig. Wasn't that a New Year's tradition as well? Uh,
(11:24):
where you'd be plucked the hair, think of of the pig,
but from like let around by a chimney sweeps the pig. Yes, exactly,
that happens to pull the pig. That seems weird, but
it's true. Pork um is often of staple at any
feasts throughout the year in a lot of these countries,
(11:45):
but especially around New Year's UM. Also little kind of
themed cakes in the shapes of rings were assigned, kind
of of like the full circular path of the year um.
And then in places like the Netherlands, Mexico and Greece
all share a lot of these same kind of ring
shaped confections, and Sweden and Norway you've got rice pudding
(12:09):
as a popular treat with almonds hidden inside, uh and
a single almond rather then that's sort of almost like
the baby in the kingcake, you know, which is that
New Orleans tradition. It symbolizes good luck and whoever finds
the almond um is supposed to be gifted with twelve
months of good fortune. And that's the same with the baby.
I believe in the in the kincake, ei either get
(12:31):
the baby or like a piece of cloth, And I
think the cloth is referred to as the rag, which
sounds gross, and I think probably early days it was
a piece of kitchen rag. But that's the one you
don't want to get. Well, if you get the baby,
you have to throw the next party, right, is that right?
I think so in the next year. Yeah, it's This
is probably my favorite belief or ritual when it comes
(12:54):
to the protein portion of a New Year's feast. So yeah,
some people eat cork, right, and that is considered a
traditional New Year's uh main dish or entree, but some
types of meat are avoided. According to the Rio Times,
people in Brazil often avoid eating chicken for the first
(13:15):
few minutes of the new year because, get this, chickens
scratch the earth backwards, So if you're eating chicken, it
symbolizes going backwards in life rather than forward, and to
avoid that fate, people eat forward moving food like fish
and pork. This is like Danny de Vito been always
study in Philly, like Emily eating blue only eating blue.
(13:39):
Come on, man, pigs walk around in circles. I've seen
you to see it. All the time trotting around in
little little rings you know. Um yeah, getting fish shark
would be a good one because that one never stops,
you knoww this just keeps going forever earth it will die. Um.
But yeah, that's the idea of scratching the earth backwards
with their creepy little chicken feet. Uh sorry, I have
feelings about chickens in particular. I like to eat them,
(14:01):
but I don't like the idea of a chicken, you know,
in the real world with their little creepy witch talents.
But in Italy, on the other hand, uh, you know,
big big into harvesting grapes to make wine. Um, this
is the time of year when they reserve some of
their wine grapes for a very special New Year's you
know blend. I guess right. Yeah, they're best grapes of
(14:26):
the year they hold back to have on this special occasion.
And it's sort of celebrating being financially shrewd and being frugal.
So it's that's oddly enough, that's a celebration of restraint.
There are some more frightening New Year's traditions. In the
(14:47):
Japanese village of olga O g a pardon or pronunciations here,
as we're not native Japanese speakers. Every New Year's Eve,
guys in the town dress up in grass mass and
they embody something called the Namajaga, which is a demonic
figure that goes door to door searching for people who
(15:10):
are new in town, as John mulaney would say, and
then they scream at the family and the children and
the new family members. They say, study, work hard. And
then the people who've lived in the town for a
while come out and they're like, hey, go away, demon,
these people are they're legit. We stand by them. And
(15:32):
then the demon leaves the traumatized youngsters alone for a year.
These are cool outfits. They kind of remind me of
the work of a really great artist named Nick Cave,
not to be confused with you know, Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds, but he's like kind of a performance
artist in the building where our offices are when it
first opened. Uh, but I think you went. Are you're
(15:53):
at least aware of everything going on around it? Yeah?
I did the interviews, that's right. We did a whole
piece Casey filmed as well for how Still Works. Back
when we were doing video in those days, and the
artist makes these things he calls sound suits that are
kind of like wicker kind of that. They're all kinds
of different ones, but they seem to be very influenced
by this Namahage. So it's got like a mask, a
(16:16):
large paper mache looking mask that looks like that traditional
I think there's actually an emoji of this thing that's
got kind of big tusks and red and like a
big nose and kind of like horns almost. And then
the suit is made of wicker and um kind of
you know, shuffles around when you move and dance. Uh.
And it looks like they're carrying little kind of whips
(16:37):
almost like in their hands. Um. Really interesting. You can
check out some amazing images of these at Unamahage dot
co dot JP. It's the Namahage Museum. I can't wait
to see this. I want to be I want to
get there like a couple of days before the New Year.
I want to be the person who gets yelled at.
(16:58):
I I think it will be fun. Uh. There will
probably be some snacks involved too, I imagine. Well let's
let's travel. Uh, let's travel a little bit westward and
go to Turkey. If you are celebrating New Year's in Turkey,
you might wear red underwear. You might run the faucet
similar to the way that people in ancient ran would
(17:20):
sprinkle water as a celebration. And then you'll you'll sprinkle
salt on your doorsteps in Turkey to ensure prosperity. If
you're Swiss, you'll skip the salt and you'll just straight
get that. You'll just straight up throw whipped cream on
the floor. I mean, it's it's a shame, but you
know it's weird. Hopeful, hopefully it bodes well for the future. Uh.
(17:43):
And that's according to the Farmer's Almanac. And this whole
dollarp of whipped cream on the floor is supposed to
usher in great prosperity for the year. UM. In the Philippines, um,
folks will wear polka dots uh, the idea being that
these circles symbolize prosperity and also that cyclical nature of
of the new year of birth and rebirth. UM. And
(18:06):
then in the US here in our deck of the
woods in the South, black eyed peas and color greens
and corn bread is a super popular tradition. Get yours now,
you guys, I'm talking to all our fellow Southern ridiculous historians.
I hope you already got them, because for Pete's sake, man,
(18:27):
there is a huge run on color greens and black
eyed peas every year leading up to the New Year.
Do you guys celebrate that? I always, I always do.
I try to. I I have it personally, but maybe
I will this year. How how about your case? How
do you feel about the color greens, black eyed peas
and cornbread tradition? Yeah? I actually actually partook of that
that tradition for the first time last year. I had
(18:49):
like a good luck New Year's Day meal, and um,
it's it's not like my favorite food eat, but I
mean it was cool. The whole tradition was fine. It's
the tradition. I think there's a reason in that. It's
not tradition to collar greens and black eyed peas and
cornbread every Thursday of every week, you know what I mean.
But but it's it's an enjoyable tradition. You don't have
(19:10):
to live in the South to do it. Uh, It's
it's it's just kind of fun, especially if you get
together with friends and you make a whole thing of it.
I do want to point out I recently heard an
excellent episode of Rick Steve's show. You guys know Rick Steves,
the travel guy. What a sweetie, what a sweet sounding guy.
He's just got the most friendly voice in the in
(19:32):
the entire universe. He always yeah, he's always like quietly
delighted to tell you about this this new obscure food
he's learned about, or how where you should go and
zagreb in spring travel with Rick Steves, it is high
Rick Steves bringing you tales of my travels. So Rick
(19:56):
Steves is like in his holiday episode, he's and today
we're going to hear the very exciting story from the
isolated islands of Scotland where they practice something called first
footing and very good man, we're both doing it and
(20:16):
we love uh so first footing, which again check out
Rick show if you haven't yet. He's he's really awesome.
He's really call me. He's kind of like the British
Baking show, you know what I mean. He's also really
into weed. He's he's he's a big um uh legalization
guy with like normal I think is the name of
(20:36):
the organization that he raps. I just I didn't know
that growing up it's kind of like, uh, if you
rewatch Bill and Ted as an adult and you go up,
this is kind of a star movie totally. So so
Rick had this guest on where the guests from Scotland
who explains to the tradition of first footing and so
(20:57):
after the stroke of mid on New Years, for good luck,
the first person to set foot in a house should
be a tall, dark male burying a lump of coal,
short bread, salt, a black butt like a bun of bread,
and we dram of whiskey and then you you trade uh,
(21:21):
I think you trade shots. But this it's fun to
hear this description and it's something that really brings the
community together. I think that's one thing a lot of
us are going to be struggling with as we get
into one because you know, usually you're out with your
friends or you're at someone's house. Um, but as we say,
(21:44):
we're gonna make it through this. And uh, if you
have the opportunity, as we always say, call your mom,
call your mom, call your mom. And I agree, always
good advice. Well, I will say uh on the record
that I am trying to resolve to to exercise a
(22:05):
little more and a lot of it had to do
with COVID, you know, sort of ruining the gym and
all of that, and then also just like the kind
of general malaise that set in um during this year.
But I went and got myself a little early Christmas present.
I got this thing called it's for the switch. It's
called Ring Fit Adventure, yes, yeah, and it's like this
(22:26):
weird kind of stretchy band that you mount the week.
I'm not the wee those switch controller too, and one
of them goes on there, one goes on your leg
and it makes you do squats and like all of
these things, but all while collecting coins and fighting monsters.
So the gamification of exercise is key for me. My
favorite thing of the gym was this recumbent bike that
had like a video game screen where you would like
(22:47):
do like weird little you know, video gaming type adventures.
So I have already had a pretty good trackord with
this thing. I also got a fit bit, so um
that is my low key resolution. I'm not putting a
number on it. I'm just kind of being a general
I'm gonna try to exercise more. I gonna try to
you know, get my steps in and all that, um
and not like put a clock on it or put
(23:07):
a number on weight loss, just kind of try to
do a little better in general. How about you been well? Uh,
these are ongoing projects, so I don't want to disclose
too too much, but I I will say I've got
some I got some stuff cooking. And as a note
of encouragement, not just you know, but to you and
(23:29):
everyone listening. Remember, just because you fall off once doesn't
mean the game's over. It's not about the battle. It's
the war. You can stumble a step and still be walking,
So keep with it. You know where. If you are
listening now and you have a resolution, we would love
to hear yours and we'll tell you how to get
(23:51):
in touch with us at the end of the show.
Uh for now, Well, one one last thing we've got
to share. It would be remiss if we didn't do this.
I think, what is old laying sign? Why do people
sing it? It's a good question. Then when we're growing up.
I don't know about you, guys, we're growing up. I
just sort of accepted it and thought that I didn't
(24:11):
understand the lyrics and I was miss hearing them. I
thought it was like old laying sign s. I g
n E was like a sign. I'm I'm only guessing here,
but I'm assuming it has something to do with Old
English or like Canterbury Tales, ask kind of that, you know,
Middle English. I guess, but let's see. It looks like
(24:33):
it's actually a Scottish poem that was officially committed to
text in sight by Robert Burns. Uh. And that's according
to the very helpful Scotland dot org Um. The melody
is actually from an older folk song that was passed around,
you know, through oral tradition in Scotland, and then the
Scottish Museum took Burns poem and said it to to
(24:57):
that tune. And that's according to the English Folk Dance
and Song Society mm hmmm. And Burns was thrilled with
this literally, he was writing about it in a letter
in sight where he said there is an old song
and tune which is often thrilled through my soul. And
(25:19):
he noted that he was at least inspired to write
these lyrics when he heard an old man singing this
song and other variations of it that appeared in times
gone by. The literal translation of old lenk sign is
old long times. But it means something more along the
(25:39):
lines of days gone by, once upon a time. So
it's a great you know, it's a great song for
people to sing along to in a group when maybe
there are a couple of drinks in feeling a little nostalgic.
I know the end of this year is going to
be a time of deep reflection for a lot of us.
So maybe you can hop on zoom or maybe we
(26:00):
could zoom bombs someone and just start singing old lang side.
I wonder, like, have you guys ever had surprise singers
like Christmas carolers or something show up to your door,
like a Santa gram perhaps, Yeah, something like that. Have
you know, well, Carol I've been caroling. I've been a
wash sail in a time or two with a group
in my mom's neighborhood. It's kind of fun. I have
(26:22):
this little tiny red guitar that I strapped on and
carried it around and I just tried to kind of
play by ear to to whatever the songs that they
were singing. It's a lot of fun. But I've never
been visited upon by carollers. How about you, Casey? I
think once or twice. Yeah, my parents place, uh in
the suburbs, like in the little neighborhood there. Um. Yeah,
I think there's there's been like a few small groups
(26:42):
of carolers kind of walking around doing their thing. That
sounds awesome. We associated with Christmas, but maybe we should
have more official songs for different holidays, you know what
I mean? Where the arbor day carolers? I agree? What's
the thing about all the things? Zion? Though it's not
it's just kind of like a reflective, fun little tune
that has been associated with New Year's but it's sort
(27:04):
of about like looking back at you know, the day
has gone by, and it's a really good summation of
like all of the themes that we've been talking about
today from these from these various and sundry um New
Year's traditions from around the world that take a lot
of inspiration from each other. Yeah. You know what, as
a matter of fact, casey uh, if we can find
(27:25):
a copyright free version of something like this, can we
can we have that plan just under the there we
go as we bid. You do what a year ridiculous historians.
Thank you so much for tuning in, Thank you for
sticking with us, Thank you for continually being the best
part of our show. Sorry, Casey, your your second, NOLS,
(27:48):
third and I'm I'm a strong fourth. Number one is
our audience. Uh and that that's this show does not
happen without you. Every time we say thank you, we
mean it from the bottom of our our little podcasting hearts.
And every time we say we want to hear from you,
we mean it. So thank you to everyone who shared
yours if you shared a story on our Facebook page
(28:10):
Ridiculous Historians, or you've written to us on Twitter or Instagram,
or you've followed us as individuals, because you can find
us online as ourselves, not just as a show. You
can find me exclusively on Instagram. I'm about to be
on a little mini vacation, so maybe i'll maybe I'll
post some of my vacation Lee activities on there. Um
(28:31):
you can find me at how Now Noel Brown, and
you can find me at Ben Bullen h s W.
Hit me up with your weird history facts sort questions.
You can also find me and contact me directly at
Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks as always to our dear
super producer Casey Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams, and if
(28:55):
you would like to hear more strange beautiful explorations of
all known history. Do check out Ephemeral. I was really
listening to some of that and it holds up. It
also features a younger Eaton Brown herself. I believe that's right.
She does the little isn't the closing alright, it's like
with a little kind of sign off at the end
of the show or maybe at the beginning, But yeah,
(29:17):
she she was much younger at that time, and like
she's now basically like a grown adult human person. She
just turned twelve and it's freaking weird, um, but yeah,
huge thanks to Christopher Haciotes here in Spirit, our research
associate extraordinaire, Gabe Louisier Um Jonathan Strickland, the Quister. We're
gonna see him more from him in the new year,
(29:37):
I guarantee, yes, absolutely. We'd also like to thank Gabe
or gobb a has just been insisting. Uh, thanks so
much Gabe for helping us make this amazing show. And
of course thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. I just talked
with her a little bit earlier. She is out hiking
(29:58):
in the wild. She's on adventures. The pictures are awesome.
I love it. We'll see you next time, folks. Happy
New Year. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Holy Smokes,
(00:28):
it's the end of I never thought this day would
come again. Yeah, it's part two of the end of
part it's part two with Yes. So we're joining ourselves
in our future selves, our future selves, which will be
important later. We're joining our future selves as you're listening
(00:49):
our past selves as we're recording for part two of
New Year's Traditions throughout history and around the world. Let's
join in already in progress. Nowadays, if you make a
New Year's resolution in the West, you're probably not going
to be making this as a covenant with a god
(01:10):
or a divine entity. Instead, in this increasingly secular society,
you're going to make a resolution to yourself. You're going
to say, you know, this is the year that I
finally finished that novel, or this is the year that
I stopped buying avocados in bulk because God knows I'm
not going to eat all of them and whatever it is.
(01:32):
H So you focus on self improvement. But unfortunately, and
I have a hack for this, we'll give you the
problem first. Unfortunately, it seems that almost half of the
people in the US say they usually make New Year's resolutions.
Fort However, Noel, as we know, uh, not all of
(01:53):
them are successful. You saw that stat, right, The rate
of follow up is got to be in the nineties, right,
and then in the negative. Only eight percent of people
actually successfully achieve their goals. Um. And it's not really
showing any signs of like putting the kai bosh on
(02:16):
New Year's resolutions anytime soon, because we really have this
is something that we've been doing for thousands and thousands
of years. Um. But I'd like to get into in
a little bit, Uh, why psychologically it's so difficult to
keep these New Year's resolutions. Yeah, yeah, I've got some
stuff on that. I've got a I've got an unfounded
life hack to just real real quickly. I think a
(02:39):
lot of us sometimes feel a cultural pressure to change
ourselves or our habits due to this somewhat arbitrary day
on the calendar, and feeling like you have to do
that may play a role in falling off whatever your
new wagon is just a few days or months later.
(03:01):
So I propose that if you're listening to this podcast
and you have had in the his in the past,
the tough time sticking with the new Year's resolution. Why
bother with that one? Why not make a resolution on
your own personal New Year's which is your birthday. Then
it's more unique to you. Is something you won't see
a bunch of people posting about on the internet. Whether
(03:22):
your birthday is in March, the original New Year's I guess,
or whether it's in September or what have you. Uh,
Then it's a little more personal. And I think that
can help increase your odds of sticking with your goals.
But again, I have no research on this. It just
works for me. That's a great idea, and I love
it you always refer to everyone's birthday as there on
personal New year uh, And I think that is a
(03:44):
very smart way of going about it, you know. And
then why not let's just go ahead and let the
cat out of the bag. Now. We actually do have
a study from the University of Scranton that suggests why
only eight percent of people will actually, you know, follow
through with those goals. Um. And there's actually a clinical
psychology term UM to refer to the cycle of repeated
(04:08):
failure to change, and it's called the very dire and
sad sounding false hope syndrome. Gosh, that's an early like
emo pop punk song title. If ever I've heard one,
I can I can hear the winey vocals now. But
think about this for a second. So false hope syndrome
(04:30):
is a cyclical thing. We resolve to change. Uh. We
usually make a resolution to do something that we couldn't
do in the previous year, something we were not able
to achieve. Tim Pitchell was a psychologist at Carlton University
in Ottawa. He says that we're making new Year's goals
(04:52):
because we keep failing at a specific task, right. And
so the tricky thing is that making a new year
is resolution doesn't really require action from you. It doesn't
even require you saying it to anyone. Just the thought
hits those instant gratification switches in our brains. That's why
(05:14):
sometimes you'll notice that if you're talking to someone about
a creative project that you haven't done yet, you will
feel good and somewhat accomplished after that conversation, because in
our brains, talking about that thinking about it satisfies us.
If feel our brain doesn't know the difference between talking
about something and doing it. And therein lies the trap
(05:37):
right where it's almost like some people go to great
length to never talk about a project that they either
haven't finished or haven't even started. Um. Maybe it's not
consciously because of that thing, but I totally see what
you're saying. Like, I've had friends throughout the years that
love to talk up these big, grand plans, uh that
I know they will never actually follow through with. So
(05:57):
I think that it's probably pretty smart to actually wait
until you've done the thing before you start blabbing about it. Agreed,
and Uh, A lot of us listening to the podcast
today are nodding our heads in agreement as well, because,
let's be honest, folks, a lot of us learned that
one the hard way. There's another phenomenon here called effective forecasting.
(06:19):
That's when we use how we feel emotionally in the
present moment to predict how we will feel in the future.
And it makes sense. You know, you're making a New
Year's resolution, You're like, I am gonna stop listening to
Steely Dan four hours a day, and you feel good
about that in that moment you're free from Dan. So
(06:40):
you think I'm gonna feel good about this in the
future too, But will you Well, first of all, been
why would anyone want to free themselves from the glory
that is Steely Dan. I mean I could listen to
nothing but Steely I could listen to nothing but Deacon
Blues on repeat for the rest of my life and
be like a happy man. That's certainly a Desert Island
(07:00):
disc for me. And right now you probably feel really
solid and really happy saying that, right, But don't make
it a resolution. No, no, a resolution to listen to
nothing but Deacon Blues all year and repeat. I think
you would get How long would you give yourself of
that one to get sick of it? I I think
I could probably go. I mean, like, I wouldn't have
to listen to it. There'd be some caveats. I wouldn't
(07:22):
have to listen to it like seven. It would just
be the only song I could listen to when the
need to listen to music struck me. So I would
probably say I would could go maybe a month. Do
you think you could listen to uh to cover versions?
Just to like very little good? That's a good one.
There's a great new cover by um Bill Callahan and
uh Will Oldham, Bunny Prince Billy of Deacon Blues. Oh
(07:44):
my god, I'm out like a month or so ago.
I love both of That's really really good. All right,
stop the show. We're gonna listen to that Casey only
case Yeah, this is fascinating. All of this stuff checks out,
like I mean, you know, it's great to have scientific
data backing it up, but all of this stuff really
does makes sense, and I can feel it in myself,
and I think, you know, I always say self awareness
is is the first step to living a better life.
(08:07):
I coined that phrase, um, And I think as long
as you know yourself and you know what your tendencies are,
you can probably heads your bets a little bit when
it comes to making New Year's resolutions and not make
such a big symbolic act out of it, and maybe
just try to, you know, follow the Christians be just
try to be a little bit better this year, just
a little bit, you know. Yeah. I would argue, while
(08:30):
I agree with that, I would argue one thing our
society and civilization and maybe our species is missing is yes,
we all need self awareness, we need to be honest
with ourselves, but we also have a severe need for
awareness of others and consideration of others. I mean, that's
the problem we keep running into we are sometimes too
(08:54):
focused on ourselves, and that's where the neuroscience comes into play,
because the area of your brain associated with the idea
of you in the future is the same area associated
with thoughts about strangers. So if I'm present Ben and
I'm thinking of something for future Bien, maybe making a
nice duck cam fee or something like that, then that
(09:17):
guy in my head, according to the mechanisms of my brain,
is a stranger. I'm thinking about some dude, just some
random dude making duck coom fee. And this means that
we're not having as much empathy or understanding of our
future self as we should. We're aware of ourselves in
(09:38):
the present, but we're not self aware in the future.
If that makes sense this weird conversation, it makes a
lot of sense. No, no, no, it's a very abstract
way of looking at it. It makes absolute sense because
you're as such a remove from your future self that
it's almost like when you kind of, um, let's see,
(09:58):
you make plan that you don't really you're not super
excited about because you're making them for your future self,
and you don't really identify with your future self because
it's separate from your now self. So you can say, oh,
my future self will be fine with these plans that
I have made for him. But then future self becomes
present self and still doesn't like the plans or the idea,
(10:19):
and then we end up in a in a in
a vicious cycle of rescheduling or flaking. And this isn't
a mean thing. This is just a thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So,
now that we've looked at the neuroscience, which is a
little bit challenging, uh, let's let's go back to something
(10:39):
a little more fun. Let's let's bust out a few
more explorations of New Year's traditions around the world. What
do you say, Let's do it all right, So let's see. Uh,
you know, everywhere around the world, no matter where you go,
people love snacks, they love feasting, and often people eat
pork on New Year's in places like Cuba, Austria, Hungary,
(11:03):
Portugal and so odd they do that because in these
cultures pigs represent progress and prosperity. Isn't that interesting though,
that they devour their flesh rather than like, you know,
revere them and to take them around on little leashes.
What was that thing we we had the chimney sweeps
in the pig. Wasn't that a New Year's tradition as well? Uh,
(11:24):
where you'd be plucked the hair, think of of the pig,
but from like let around by a chimney sweeps the pig. Yes, exactly,
that happens to pull the pig. That seems weird, but
it's true. Pork um is often of staple at any
feasts throughout the year in a lot of these countries,
(11:45):
but especially around New Year's UM. Also little kind of
themed cakes in the shapes of rings were assigned, kind
of of like the full circular path of the year um.
And then in places like the Netherlands, Mexico and Greece
all share a lot of these same kind of ring
shaped confections, and Sweden and Norway you've got rice pudding
(12:09):
as a popular treat with almonds hidden inside, uh and
a single almond rather then that's sort of almost like
the baby in the kingcake, you know, which is that
New Orleans tradition. It symbolizes good luck and whoever finds
the almond um is supposed to be gifted with twelve
months of good fortune. And that's the same with the baby.
I believe in the in the kincake, ei either get
(12:31):
the baby or like a piece of cloth, And I
think the cloth is referred to as the rag, which
sounds gross, and I think probably early days it was
a piece of kitchen rag. But that's the one you
don't want to get. Well, if you get the baby,
you have to throw the next party, right, is that right?
I think so in the next year. Yeah, it's This
is probably my favorite belief or ritual when it comes
(12:54):
to the protein portion of a New Year's feast. So yeah,
some people eat cork, right, and that is considered a
traditional New Year's uh main dish or entree, but some
types of meat are avoided. According to the Rio Times,
people in Brazil often avoid eating chicken for the first
(13:15):
few minutes of the new year because, get this, chickens
scratch the earth backwards, So if you're eating chicken, it
symbolizes going backwards in life rather than forward, and to
avoid that fate, people eat forward moving food like fish
and pork. This is like Danny de Vito been always
study in Philly, like Emily eating blue only eating blue.
(13:39):
Come on, man, pigs walk around in circles. I've seen
you to see it. All the time trotting around in
little little rings you know. Um yeah, getting fish shark
would be a good one because that one never stops,
you knoww this just keeps going forever earth it will die. Um.
But yeah, that's the idea of scratching the earth backwards
with their creepy little chicken feet. Uh sorry, I have
feelings about chickens in particular. I like to eat them,
(14:01):
but I don't like the idea of a chicken, you know,
in the real world with their little creepy witch talents.
But in Italy, on the other hand, uh, you know,
big big into harvesting grapes to make wine. Um, this
is the time of year when they reserve some of
their wine grapes for a very special New Year's you
know blend. I guess right. Yeah, they're best grapes of
(14:26):
the year they hold back to have on this special occasion.
And it's sort of celebrating being financially shrewd and being frugal.
So it's that's oddly enough, that's a celebration of restraint.
There are some more frightening New Year's traditions. In the
(14:47):
Japanese village of olga O g a pardon or pronunciations here,
as we're not native Japanese speakers. Every New Year's Eve,
guys in the town dress up in grass mass and
they embody something called the Namajaga, which is a demonic
figure that goes door to door searching for people who
(15:10):
are new in town, as John mulaney would say, and
then they scream at the family and the children and
the new family members. They say, study, work hard. And
then the people who've lived in the town for a
while come out and they're like, hey, go away, demon,
these people are they're legit. We stand by them. And
(15:32):
then the demon leaves the traumatized youngsters alone for a year.
These are cool outfits. They kind of remind me of
the work of a really great artist named Nick Cave,
not to be confused with you know, Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds, but he's like kind of a performance
artist in the building where our offices are when it
first opened. Uh, but I think you went. Are you're
(15:53):
at least aware of everything going on around it? Yeah?
I did the interviews, that's right. We did a whole
piece Casey filmed as well for how Still Works. Back
when we were doing video in those days, and the
artist makes these things he calls sound suits that are
kind of like wicker kind of that. They're all kinds
of different ones, but they seem to be very influenced
by this Namahage. So it's got like a mask, a
(16:16):
large paper mache looking mask that looks like that traditional
I think there's actually an emoji of this thing that's
got kind of big tusks and red and like a
big nose and kind of like horns almost. And then
the suit is made of wicker and um kind of
you know, shuffles around when you move and dance. Uh.
And it looks like they're carrying little kind of whips
(16:37):
almost like in their hands. Um. Really interesting. You can
check out some amazing images of these at Unamahage dot
co dot JP. It's the Namahage Museum. I can't wait
to see this. I want to be I want to
get there like a couple of days before the New Year.
I want to be the person who gets yelled at.
(16:58):
I I think it will be fun. Uh. There will
probably be some snacks involved too, I imagine. Well let's
let's travel. Uh, let's travel a little bit westward and
go to Turkey. If you are celebrating New Year's in Turkey,
you might wear red underwear. You might run the faucet
similar to the way that people in ancient ran would
(17:20):
sprinkle water as a celebration. And then you'll you'll sprinkle
salt on your doorsteps in Turkey to ensure prosperity. If
you're Swiss, you'll skip the salt and you'll just straight
get that. You'll just straight up throw whipped cream on
the floor. I mean, it's it's a shame, but you
know it's weird. Hopeful, hopefully it bodes well for the future. Uh.
(17:43):
And that's according to the Farmer's Almanac. And this whole
dollarp of whipped cream on the floor is supposed to
usher in great prosperity for the year. UM. In the Philippines, um,
folks will wear polka dots uh, the idea being that
these circles symbolize prosperity and also that cyclical nature of
of the new year of birth and rebirth. UM. And
(18:06):
then in the US here in our deck of the
woods in the South, black eyed peas and color greens
and corn bread is a super popular tradition. Get yours now,
you guys, I'm talking to all our fellow Southern ridiculous historians.
I hope you already got them, because for Pete's sake, man,
(18:27):
there is a huge run on color greens and black
eyed peas every year leading up to the New Year.
Do you guys celebrate that? I always, I always do.
I try to. I I have it personally, but maybe
I will this year. How how about your case? How
do you feel about the color greens, black eyed peas
and cornbread tradition? Yeah? I actually actually partook of that
that tradition for the first time last year. I had
(18:49):
like a good luck New Year's Day meal, and um,
it's it's not like my favorite food eat, but I
mean it was cool. The whole tradition was fine. It's
the tradition. I think there's a reason in that. It's
not tradition to collar greens and black eyed peas and
cornbread every Thursday of every week, you know what I mean.
But but it's it's an enjoyable tradition. You don't have
(19:10):
to live in the South to do it. Uh, It's
it's it's just kind of fun, especially if you get
together with friends and you make a whole thing of it.
I do want to point out I recently heard an
excellent episode of Rick Steve's show. You guys know Rick Steves,
the travel guy. What a sweetie, what a sweet sounding guy.
He's just got the most friendly voice in the in
(19:32):
the entire universe. He always yeah, he's always like quietly
delighted to tell you about this this new obscure food
he's learned about, or how where you should go and
zagreb in spring travel with Rick Steves, it is high
Rick Steves bringing you tales of my travels. So Rick
(19:56):
Steves is like in his holiday episode, he's and today
we're going to hear the very exciting story from the
isolated islands of Scotland where they practice something called first
footing and very good man, we're both doing it and
(20:16):
we love uh so first footing, which again check out
Rick show if you haven't yet. He's he's really awesome.
He's really call me. He's kind of like the British
Baking show, you know what I mean. He's also really
into weed. He's he's he's a big um uh legalization
guy with like normal I think is the name of
(20:36):
the organization that he raps. I just I didn't know
that growing up it's kind of like, uh, if you
rewatch Bill and Ted as an adult and you go up,
this is kind of a star movie totally. So so
Rick had this guest on where the guests from Scotland
who explains to the tradition of first footing and so
(20:57):
after the stroke of mid on New Years, for good luck,
the first person to set foot in a house should
be a tall, dark male burying a lump of coal,
short bread, salt, a black butt like a bun of bread,
and we dram of whiskey and then you you trade uh,
(21:21):
I think you trade shots. But this it's fun to
hear this description and it's something that really brings the
community together. I think that's one thing a lot of
us are going to be struggling with as we get
into one because you know, usually you're out with your
friends or you're at someone's house. Um, but as we say,
(21:44):
we're gonna make it through this. And uh, if you
have the opportunity, as we always say, call your mom,
call your mom, call your mom. And I agree, always
good advice. Well, I will say uh on the record
that I am trying to resolve to to exercise a
(22:05):
little more and a lot of it had to do
with COVID, you know, sort of ruining the gym and
all of that, and then also just like the kind
of general malaise that set in um during this year.
But I went and got myself a little early Christmas present.
I got this thing called it's for the switch. It's
called Ring Fit Adventure, yes, yeah, and it's like this
(22:26):
weird kind of stretchy band that you mount the week.
I'm not the wee those switch controller too, and one
of them goes on there, one goes on your leg
and it makes you do squats and like all of
these things, but all while collecting coins and fighting monsters.
So the gamification of exercise is key for me. My
favorite thing of the gym was this recumbent bike that
had like a video game screen where you would like
(22:47):
do like weird little you know, video gaming type adventures.
So I have already had a pretty good trackord with
this thing. I also got a fit bit, so um
that is my low key resolution. I'm not putting a
number on it. I'm just kind of being a general
I'm gonna try to exercise more. I gonna try to
you know, get my steps in and all that, um
and not like put a clock on it or put
(23:07):
a number on weight loss, just kind of try to
do a little better in general. How about you been well? Uh,
these are ongoing projects, so I don't want to disclose
too too much, but I I will say I've got
some I got some stuff cooking. And as a note
of encouragement, not just you know, but to you and
(23:29):
everyone listening. Remember, just because you fall off once doesn't
mean the game's over. It's not about the battle. It's
the war. You can stumble a step and still be walking,
So keep with it. You know where. If you are
listening now and you have a resolution, we would love
to hear yours and we'll tell you how to get
(23:51):
in touch with us at the end of the show.
Uh for now, Well, one one last thing we've got
to share. It would be remiss if we didn't do this.
I think, what is old laying sign? Why do people
sing it? It's a good question. Then when we're growing up.
I don't know about you, guys, we're growing up. I
just sort of accepted it and thought that I didn't
(24:11):
understand the lyrics and I was miss hearing them. I
thought it was like old laying sign s. I g
n E was like a sign. I'm I'm only guessing here,
but I'm assuming it has something to do with Old
English or like Canterbury Tales, ask kind of that, you know,
Middle English. I guess, but let's see. It looks like
(24:33):
it's actually a Scottish poem that was officially committed to
text in sight by Robert Burns. Uh. And that's according
to the very helpful Scotland dot org Um. The melody
is actually from an older folk song that was passed around,
you know, through oral tradition in Scotland, and then the
Scottish Museum took Burns poem and said it to to
(24:57):
that tune. And that's according to the English Folk Dance
and Song Society mm hmmm. And Burns was thrilled with
this literally, he was writing about it in a letter
in sight where he said there is an old song
and tune which is often thrilled through my soul. And
(25:19):
he noted that he was at least inspired to write
these lyrics when he heard an old man singing this
song and other variations of it that appeared in times
gone by. The literal translation of old lenk sign is
old long times. But it means something more along the
(25:39):
lines of days gone by, once upon a time. So
it's a great you know, it's a great song for
people to sing along to in a group when maybe
there are a couple of drinks in feeling a little nostalgic.
I know the end of this year is going to
be a time of deep reflection for a lot of us.
So maybe you can hop on zoom or maybe we
(26:00):
could zoom bombs someone and just start singing old lang side.
I wonder, like, have you guys ever had surprise singers
like Christmas carolers or something show up to your door,
like a Santa gram perhaps, Yeah, something like that. Have
you know, well, Carol I've been caroling. I've been a
wash sail in a time or two with a group
in my mom's neighborhood. It's kind of fun. I have
(26:22):
this little tiny red guitar that I strapped on and
carried it around and I just tried to kind of
play by ear to to whatever the songs that they
were singing. It's a lot of fun. But I've never
been visited upon by carollers. How about you, Casey? I
think once or twice. Yeah, my parents place, uh in
the suburbs, like in the little neighborhood there. Um. Yeah,
I think there's there's been like a few small groups
(26:42):
of carolers kind of walking around doing their thing. That
sounds awesome. We associated with Christmas, but maybe we should
have more official songs for different holidays, you know what
I mean? Where the arbor day carolers? I agree? What's
the thing about all the things? Zion? Though it's not
it's just kind of like a reflective, fun little tune
that has been associated with New Year's but it's sort
(27:04):
of about like looking back at you know, the day
has gone by, and it's a really good summation of
like all of the themes that we've been talking about
today from these from these various and sundry um New
Year's traditions from around the world that take a lot
of inspiration from each other. Yeah. You know what, as
a matter of fact, casey uh, if we can find
(27:25):
a copyright free version of something like this, can we
can we have that plan just under the there we
go as we bid. You do what a year ridiculous historians.
Thank you so much for tuning in, Thank you for
sticking with us, Thank you for continually being the best
part of our show. Sorry, Casey, your your second, NOLS,
(27:48):
third and I'm I'm a strong fourth. Number one is
our audience. Uh and that that's this show does not
happen without you. Every time we say thank you, we
mean it from the bottom of our our little podcasting hearts.
And every time we say we want to hear from you,
we mean it. So thank you to everyone who shared
yours if you shared a story on our Facebook page
(28:10):
Ridiculous Historians, or you've written to us on Twitter or Instagram,
or you've followed us as individuals, because you can find
us online as ourselves, not just as a show. You
can find me exclusively on Instagram. I'm about to be
on a little mini vacation, so maybe i'll maybe I'll
post some of my vacation Lee activities on there. Um
(28:31):
you can find me at how Now Noel Brown, and
you can find me at Ben Bullen h s W.
Hit me up with your weird history facts sort questions.
You can also find me and contact me directly at
Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks as always to our dear
super producer Casey Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams, and if
(28:55):
you would like to hear more strange beautiful explorations of
all known history. Do check out Ephemeral. I was really
listening to some of that and it holds up. It
also features a younger Eaton Brown herself. I believe that's right.
She does the little isn't the closing alright, it's like
with a little kind of sign off at the end
of the show or maybe at the beginning, But yeah,
(29:17):
she she was much younger at that time, and like
she's now basically like a grown adult human person. She
just turned twelve and it's freaking weird, um, but yeah,
huge thanks to Christopher Haciotes here in Spirit, our research
associate extraordinaire, Gabe Louisier Um Jonathan Strickland, the Quister. We're
gonna see him more from him in the new year,
(29:37):
I guarantee, yes, absolutely. We'd also like to thank Gabe
or gobb a has just been insisting. Uh, thanks so
much Gabe for helping us make this amazing show. And
of course thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. I just talked
with her a little bit earlier. She is out hiking
(29:58):
in the wild. She's on adventures. The pictures are awesome.
I love it. We'll see you next time, folks. Happy
New Year. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.