Latest / Ridiculous History / The Old Rituals of New Years, Part 2: Neuroscience, Resolutions and the Rick Steves Fan Club

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The Old Rituals of New Years, Part 2: Neuroscience, Resolutions and the Rick Steves Fan Club · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Holy Smokes,
0:28
Speaker 1: it's the end of I never thought this day would
0:31
Speaker 1: come again. Yeah, it's part two of the end of
0:35
Speaker 1: part it's part two with Yes. So we're joining ourselves
0:42
Speaker 1: in our future selves, our future selves, which will be
0:45
Speaker 1: important later. We're joining our future selves as you're listening
0:49
Speaker 1: our past selves as we're recording for part two of
0:54
Speaker 1: New Year's Traditions throughout history and around the world. Let's
0:58
Speaker 1: join in already in progress. Nowadays, if you make a
1:02
Speaker 1: New Year's resolution in the West, you're probably not going
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Speaker 1: to be making this as a covenant with a god
1:10
Speaker 1: or a divine entity. Instead, in this increasingly secular society,
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Speaker 1: you're going to make a resolution to yourself. You're going
1:18
Speaker 1: to say, you know, this is the year that I
1:21
Speaker 1: finally finished that novel, or this is the year that
1:25
Speaker 1: I stopped buying avocados in bulk because God knows I'm
1:28
Speaker 1: not going to eat all of them and whatever it is.
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Speaker 1: H So you focus on self improvement. But unfortunately, and
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Speaker 1: I have a hack for this, we'll give you the
1:38
Speaker 1: problem first. Unfortunately, it seems that almost half of the
1:43
Speaker 1: people in the US say they usually make New Year's resolutions.
1:48
Speaker 1: Fort However, Noel, as we know, uh, not all of
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Speaker 1: them are successful. You saw that stat, right, The rate
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Speaker 1: of follow up is got to be in the nineties, right,
2:01
Speaker 1: and then in the negative. Only eight percent of people
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Speaker 1: actually successfully achieve their goals. Um. And it's not really
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Speaker 1: showing any signs of like putting the kai bosh on
2:16
Speaker 1: New Year's resolutions anytime soon, because we really have this
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Speaker 1: is something that we've been doing for thousands and thousands
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Speaker 1: of years. Um. But I'd like to get into in
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Speaker 1: a little bit, Uh, why psychologically it's so difficult to
2:29
Speaker 1: keep these New Year's resolutions. Yeah, yeah, I've got some
2:33
Speaker 1: stuff on that. I've got a I've got an unfounded
2:35
Speaker 1: life hack to just real real quickly. I think a
2:39
Speaker 1: lot of us sometimes feel a cultural pressure to change
2:45
Speaker 1: ourselves or our habits due to this somewhat arbitrary day
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Speaker 1: on the calendar, and feeling like you have to do
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Speaker 1: that may play a role in falling off whatever your
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Speaker 1: new wagon is just a few days or months later.
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Speaker 1: So I propose that if you're listening to this podcast
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Speaker 1: and you have had in the his in the past,
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Speaker 1: the tough time sticking with the new Year's resolution. Why
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Speaker 1: bother with that one? Why not make a resolution on
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Speaker 1: your own personal New Year's which is your birthday. Then
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Speaker 1: it's more unique to you. Is something you won't see
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Speaker 1: a bunch of people posting about on the internet. Whether
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Speaker 1: your birthday is in March, the original New Year's I guess,
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Speaker 1: or whether it's in September or what have you. Uh,
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Speaker 1: Then it's a little more personal. And I think that
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Speaker 1: can help increase your odds of sticking with your goals.
3:35
Speaker 1: But again, I have no research on this. It just
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Speaker 1: works for me. That's a great idea, and I love
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Speaker 1: it you always refer to everyone's birthday as there on
3:41
Speaker 1: personal New year uh, And I think that is a
3:44
Speaker 1: very smart way of going about it, you know. And
3:47
Speaker 1: then why not let's just go ahead and let the
3:49
Speaker 1: cat out of the bag. Now. We actually do have
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Speaker 1: a study from the University of Scranton that suggests why
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Speaker 1: only eight percent of people will actually, you know, follow
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Speaker 1: through with those goals. Um. And there's actually a clinical
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Speaker 1: psychology term UM to refer to the cycle of repeated
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Speaker 1: failure to change, and it's called the very dire and
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Speaker 1: sad sounding false hope syndrome. Gosh, that's an early like
4:18
Speaker 1: emo pop punk song title. If ever I've heard one,
4:22
Speaker 1: I can I can hear the winey vocals now. But
4:26
Speaker 1: think about this for a second. So false hope syndrome
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Speaker 1: is a cyclical thing. We resolve to change. Uh. We
4:35
Speaker 1: usually make a resolution to do something that we couldn't
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Speaker 1: do in the previous year, something we were not able
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Speaker 1: to achieve. Tim Pitchell was a psychologist at Carlton University
4:48
Speaker 1: in Ottawa. He says that we're making new Year's goals
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Speaker 1: because we keep failing at a specific task, right. And
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Speaker 1: so the tricky thing is that making a new year
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Speaker 1: is resolution doesn't really require action from you. It doesn't
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Speaker 1: even require you saying it to anyone. Just the thought
5:09
Speaker 1: hits those instant gratification switches in our brains. That's why
5:14
Speaker 1: sometimes you'll notice that if you're talking to someone about
5:17
Speaker 1: a creative project that you haven't done yet, you will
5:21
Speaker 1: feel good and somewhat accomplished after that conversation, because in
5:26
Speaker 1: our brains, talking about that thinking about it satisfies us.
5:30
Speaker 1: If feel our brain doesn't know the difference between talking
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Speaker 1: about something and doing it. And therein lies the trap
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Speaker 1: right where it's almost like some people go to great
5:40
Speaker 1: length to never talk about a project that they either
5:42
Speaker 1: haven't finished or haven't even started. Um. Maybe it's not
5:45
Speaker 1: consciously because of that thing, but I totally see what
5:48
Speaker 1: you're saying. Like, I've had friends throughout the years that
5:50
Speaker 1: love to talk up these big, grand plans, uh that
5:54
Speaker 1: I know they will never actually follow through with. So
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Speaker 1: I think that it's probably pretty smart to actually wait
6:01
Speaker 1: until you've done the thing before you start blabbing about it. Agreed,
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Speaker 1: and Uh, A lot of us listening to the podcast
6:08
Speaker 1: today are nodding our heads in agreement as well, because,
6:12
Speaker 1: let's be honest, folks, a lot of us learned that
6:14
Speaker 1: one the hard way. There's another phenomenon here called effective forecasting.
6:19
Speaker 1: That's when we use how we feel emotionally in the
6:23
Speaker 1: present moment to predict how we will feel in the future.
6:27
Speaker 1: And it makes sense. You know, you're making a New
6:29
Speaker 1: Year's resolution, You're like, I am gonna stop listening to
6:33
Speaker 1: Steely Dan four hours a day, and you feel good
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Speaker 1: about that in that moment you're free from Dan. So
6:40
Speaker 1: you think I'm gonna feel good about this in the
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Speaker 1: future too, But will you Well, first of all, been
6:46
Speaker 1: why would anyone want to free themselves from the glory
6:49
Speaker 1: that is Steely Dan. I mean I could listen to
6:52
Speaker 1: nothing but Steely I could listen to nothing but Deacon
6:54
Speaker 1: Blues on repeat for the rest of my life and
6:57
Speaker 1: be like a happy man. That's certainly a Desert Island
7:00
Speaker 1: disc for me. And right now you probably feel really
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Speaker 1: solid and really happy saying that, right, But don't make
7:06
Speaker 1: it a resolution. No, no, a resolution to listen to
7:09
Speaker 1: nothing but Deacon Blues all year and repeat. I think
7:13
Speaker 1: you would get How long would you give yourself of
7:15
Speaker 1: that one to get sick of it? I I think
7:18
Speaker 1: I could probably go. I mean, like, I wouldn't have
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Speaker 1: to listen to it. There'd be some caveats. I wouldn't
7:22
Speaker 1: have to listen to it like seven. It would just
7:24
Speaker 1: be the only song I could listen to when the
7:27
Speaker 1: need to listen to music struck me. So I would
7:29
Speaker 1: probably say I would could go maybe a month. Do
7:32
Speaker 1: you think you could listen to uh to cover versions?
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Speaker 1: Just to like very little good? That's a good one.
7:37
Speaker 1: There's a great new cover by um Bill Callahan and
7:41
Speaker 1: uh Will Oldham, Bunny Prince Billy of Deacon Blues. Oh
7:44
Speaker 1: my god, I'm out like a month or so ago.
7:46
Speaker 1: I love both of That's really really good. All right,
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Speaker 1: stop the show. We're gonna listen to that Casey only
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Speaker 1: case Yeah, this is fascinating. All of this stuff checks out,
7:55
Speaker 1: like I mean, you know, it's great to have scientific
7:57
Speaker 1: data backing it up, but all of this stuff really
7:59
Speaker 1: does makes sense, and I can feel it in myself,
8:02
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, I always say self awareness
8:04
Speaker 1: is is the first step to living a better life.
8:07
Speaker 1: I coined that phrase, um, And I think as long
8:09
Speaker 1: as you know yourself and you know what your tendencies are,
8:13
Speaker 1: you can probably heads your bets a little bit when
8:16
Speaker 1: it comes to making New Year's resolutions and not make
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Speaker 1: such a big symbolic act out of it, and maybe
8:21
Speaker 1: just try to, you know, follow the Christians be just
8:24
Speaker 1: try to be a little bit better this year, just
8:27
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know. Yeah. I would argue, while
8:30
Speaker 1: I agree with that, I would argue one thing our
8:33
Speaker 1: society and civilization and maybe our species is missing is yes,
8:39
Speaker 1: we all need self awareness, we need to be honest
8:41
Speaker 1: with ourselves, but we also have a severe need for
8:46
Speaker 1: awareness of others and consideration of others. I mean, that's
8:50
Speaker 1: the problem we keep running into we are sometimes too
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Speaker 1: focused on ourselves, and that's where the neuroscience comes into play,
8:58
Speaker 1: because the area of your brain associated with the idea
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Speaker 1: of you in the future is the same area associated
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Speaker 1: with thoughts about strangers. So if I'm present Ben and
9:10
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of something for future Bien, maybe making a
9:13
Speaker 1: nice duck cam fee or something like that, then that
9:17
Speaker 1: guy in my head, according to the mechanisms of my brain,
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Speaker 1: is a stranger. I'm thinking about some dude, just some
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Speaker 1: random dude making duck coom fee. And this means that
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Speaker 1: we're not having as much empathy or understanding of our
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Speaker 1: future self as we should. We're aware of ourselves in
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Speaker 1: the present, but we're not self aware in the future.
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Speaker 1: If that makes sense this weird conversation, it makes a
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Speaker 1: lot of sense. No, no, no, it's a very abstract
9:48
Speaker 1: way of looking at it. It makes absolute sense because
9:51
Speaker 1: you're as such a remove from your future self that
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Speaker 1: it's almost like when you kind of, um, let's see,
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Speaker 1: you make plan that you don't really you're not super
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Speaker 1: excited about because you're making them for your future self,
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Speaker 1: and you don't really identify with your future self because
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Speaker 1: it's separate from your now self. So you can say, oh,
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Speaker 1: my future self will be fine with these plans that
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Speaker 1: I have made for him. But then future self becomes
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Speaker 1: present self and still doesn't like the plans or the idea,
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Speaker 1: and then we end up in a in a in
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Speaker 1: a vicious cycle of rescheduling or flaking. And this isn't
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Speaker 1: a mean thing. This is just a thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So,
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Speaker 1: now that we've looked at the neuroscience, which is a
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Speaker 1: little bit challenging, uh, let's let's go back to something
10:39
Speaker 1: a little more fun. Let's let's bust out a few
10:42
Speaker 1: more explorations of New Year's traditions around the world. What
10:45
Speaker 1: do you say, Let's do it all right, So let's see. Uh,
10:50
Speaker 1: you know, everywhere around the world, no matter where you go,
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Speaker 1: people love snacks, they love feasting, and often people eat
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Speaker 1: pork on New Year's in places like Cuba, Austria, Hungary,
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Speaker 1: Portugal and so odd they do that because in these
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Speaker 1: cultures pigs represent progress and prosperity. Isn't that interesting though,
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Speaker 1: that they devour their flesh rather than like, you know,
11:16
Speaker 1: revere them and to take them around on little leashes.
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Speaker 1: What was that thing we we had the chimney sweeps
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Speaker 1: in the pig. Wasn't that a New Year's tradition as well? Uh,
11:24
Speaker 1: where you'd be plucked the hair, think of of the pig,
11:28
Speaker 1: but from like let around by a chimney sweeps the pig. Yes, exactly,
11:35
Speaker 1: that happens to pull the pig. That seems weird, but
11:37
Speaker 1: it's true. Pork um is often of staple at any
11:42
Speaker 1: feasts throughout the year in a lot of these countries,
11:45
Speaker 1: but especially around New Year's UM. Also little kind of
11:49
Speaker 1: themed cakes in the shapes of rings were assigned, kind
11:53
Speaker 1: of of like the full circular path of the year um.
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Speaker 1: And then in places like the Netherlands, Mexico and Greece
12:02
Speaker 1: all share a lot of these same kind of ring
12:05
Speaker 1: shaped confections, and Sweden and Norway you've got rice pudding
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Speaker 1: as a popular treat with almonds hidden inside, uh and
12:13
Speaker 1: a single almond rather then that's sort of almost like
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Speaker 1: the baby in the kingcake, you know, which is that
12:20
Speaker 1: New Orleans tradition. It symbolizes good luck and whoever finds
12:24
Speaker 1: the almond um is supposed to be gifted with twelve
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Speaker 1: months of good fortune. And that's the same with the baby.
12:28
Speaker 1: I believe in the in the kincake, ei either get
12:31
Speaker 1: the baby or like a piece of cloth, And I
12:33
Speaker 1: think the cloth is referred to as the rag, which
12:36
Speaker 1: sounds gross, and I think probably early days it was
12:38
Speaker 1: a piece of kitchen rag. But that's the one you
12:40
Speaker 1: don't want to get. Well, if you get the baby,
12:43
Speaker 1: you have to throw the next party, right, is that right?
12:46
Speaker 1: I think so in the next year. Yeah, it's This
12:50
Speaker 1: is probably my favorite belief or ritual when it comes
12:54
Speaker 1: to the protein portion of a New Year's feast. So yeah,
12:58
Speaker 1: some people eat cork, right, and that is considered a
13:02
Speaker 1: traditional New Year's uh main dish or entree, but some
13:07
Speaker 1: types of meat are avoided. According to the Rio Times,
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Speaker 1: people in Brazil often avoid eating chicken for the first
13:15
Speaker 1: few minutes of the new year because, get this, chickens
13:19
Speaker 1: scratch the earth backwards, So if you're eating chicken, it
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Speaker 1: symbolizes going backwards in life rather than forward, and to
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Speaker 1: avoid that fate, people eat forward moving food like fish
13:32
Speaker 1: and pork. This is like Danny de Vito been always
13:35
Speaker 1: study in Philly, like Emily eating blue only eating blue.
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Speaker 1: Come on, man, pigs walk around in circles. I've seen
13:41
Speaker 1: you to see it. All the time trotting around in
13:43
Speaker 1: little little rings you know. Um yeah, getting fish shark
13:47
Speaker 1: would be a good one because that one never stops,
13:49
Speaker 1: you knoww this just keeps going forever earth it will die. Um.
13:52
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's the idea of scratching the earth backwards
13:55
Speaker 1: with their creepy little chicken feet. Uh sorry, I have
13:58
Speaker 1: feelings about chickens in particular. I like to eat them,
14:01
Speaker 1: but I don't like the idea of a chicken, you know,
14:03
Speaker 1: in the real world with their little creepy witch talents.
14:06
Speaker 1: But in Italy, on the other hand, uh, you know,
14:09
Speaker 1: big big into harvesting grapes to make wine. Um, this
14:13
Speaker 1: is the time of year when they reserve some of
14:15
Speaker 1: their wine grapes for a very special New Year's you
14:20
Speaker 1: know blend. I guess right. Yeah, they're best grapes of
14:26
Speaker 1: the year they hold back to have on this special occasion.
14:30
Speaker 1: And it's sort of celebrating being financially shrewd and being frugal.
14:36
Speaker 1: So it's that's oddly enough, that's a celebration of restraint.
14:40
Speaker 1: There are some more frightening New Year's traditions. In the
14:47
Speaker 1: Japanese village of olga O g a pardon or pronunciations here,
14:52
Speaker 1: as we're not native Japanese speakers. Every New Year's Eve,
14:57
Speaker 1: guys in the town dress up in grass mass and
15:01
Speaker 1: they embody something called the Namajaga, which is a demonic
15:06
Speaker 1: figure that goes door to door searching for people who
15:10
Speaker 1: are new in town, as John mulaney would say, and
15:14
Speaker 1: then they scream at the family and the children and
15:17
Speaker 1: the new family members. They say, study, work hard. And
15:22
Speaker 1: then the people who've lived in the town for a
15:24
Speaker 1: while come out and they're like, hey, go away, demon,
15:28
Speaker 1: these people are they're legit. We stand by them. And
15:32
Speaker 1: then the demon leaves the traumatized youngsters alone for a year.
15:36
Speaker 1: These are cool outfits. They kind of remind me of
15:39
Speaker 1: the work of a really great artist named Nick Cave,
15:43
Speaker 1: not to be confused with you know, Nick Cave and
15:45
Speaker 1: the Bad Seeds, but he's like kind of a performance
15:47
Speaker 1: artist in the building where our offices are when it
15:50
Speaker 1: first opened. Uh, but I think you went. Are you're
15:53
Speaker 1: at least aware of everything going on around it? Yeah?
15:55
Speaker 1: I did the interviews, that's right. We did a whole
15:57
Speaker 1: piece Casey filmed as well for how Still Works. Back
16:01
Speaker 1: when we were doing video in those days, and the
16:04
Speaker 1: artist makes these things he calls sound suits that are
16:08
Speaker 1: kind of like wicker kind of that. They're all kinds
16:11
Speaker 1: of different ones, but they seem to be very influenced
16:13
Speaker 1: by this Namahage. So it's got like a mask, a
16:16
Speaker 1: large paper mache looking mask that looks like that traditional
16:20
Speaker 1: I think there's actually an emoji of this thing that's
16:23
Speaker 1: got kind of big tusks and red and like a
16:26
Speaker 1: big nose and kind of like horns almost. And then
16:28
Speaker 1: the suit is made of wicker and um kind of
16:32
Speaker 1: you know, shuffles around when you move and dance. Uh.
16:34
Speaker 1: And it looks like they're carrying little kind of whips
16:37
Speaker 1: almost like in their hands. Um. Really interesting. You can
16:41
Speaker 1: check out some amazing images of these at Unamahage dot
16:45
Speaker 1: co dot JP. It's the Namahage Museum. I can't wait
16:51
Speaker 1: to see this. I want to be I want to
16:53
Speaker 1: get there like a couple of days before the New Year.
16:56
Speaker 1: I want to be the person who gets yelled at.
16:58
Speaker 1: I I think it will be fun. Uh. There will
17:00
Speaker 1: probably be some snacks involved too, I imagine. Well let's
17:04
Speaker 1: let's travel. Uh, let's travel a little bit westward and
17:08
Speaker 1: go to Turkey. If you are celebrating New Year's in Turkey,
17:13
Speaker 1: you might wear red underwear. You might run the faucet
17:17
Speaker 1: similar to the way that people in ancient ran would
17:20
Speaker 1: sprinkle water as a celebration. And then you'll you'll sprinkle
17:24
Speaker 1: salt on your doorsteps in Turkey to ensure prosperity. If
17:29
Speaker 1: you're Swiss, you'll skip the salt and you'll just straight
17:33
Speaker 1: get that. You'll just straight up throw whipped cream on
17:36
Speaker 1: the floor. I mean, it's it's a shame, but you
17:39
Speaker 1: know it's weird. Hopeful, hopefully it bodes well for the future. Uh.
17:43
Speaker 1: And that's according to the Farmer's Almanac. And this whole
17:47
Speaker 1: dollarp of whipped cream on the floor is supposed to
17:50
Speaker 1: usher in great prosperity for the year. UM. In the Philippines, um,
17:54
Speaker 1: folks will wear polka dots uh, the idea being that
17:58
Speaker 1: these circles symbolize prosperity and also that cyclical nature of
18:03
Speaker 1: of the new year of birth and rebirth. UM. And
18:06
Speaker 1: then in the US here in our deck of the
18:09
Speaker 1: woods in the South, black eyed peas and color greens
18:13
Speaker 1: and corn bread is a super popular tradition. Get yours now,
18:18
Speaker 1: you guys, I'm talking to all our fellow Southern ridiculous historians.
18:23
Speaker 1: I hope you already got them, because for Pete's sake, man,
18:27
Speaker 1: there is a huge run on color greens and black
18:31
Speaker 1: eyed peas every year leading up to the New Year.
18:34
Speaker 1: Do you guys celebrate that? I always, I always do.
18:36
Speaker 1: I try to. I I have it personally, but maybe
18:39
Speaker 1: I will this year. How how about your case? How
18:40
Speaker 1: do you feel about the color greens, black eyed peas
18:42
Speaker 1: and cornbread tradition? Yeah? I actually actually partook of that
18:46
Speaker 1: that tradition for the first time last year. I had
18:49
Speaker 1: like a good luck New Year's Day meal, and um,
18:53
Speaker 1: it's it's not like my favorite food eat, but I
18:55
Speaker 1: mean it was cool. The whole tradition was fine. It's
18:57
Speaker 1: the tradition. I think there's a reason in that. It's
19:01
Speaker 1: not tradition to collar greens and black eyed peas and
19:03
Speaker 1: cornbread every Thursday of every week, you know what I mean.
19:07
Speaker 1: But but it's it's an enjoyable tradition. You don't have
19:10
Speaker 1: to live in the South to do it. Uh, It's
19:12
Speaker 1: it's it's just kind of fun, especially if you get
19:15
Speaker 1: together with friends and you make a whole thing of it.
19:18
Speaker 1: I do want to point out I recently heard an
19:21
Speaker 1: excellent episode of Rick Steve's show. You guys know Rick Steves,
19:26
Speaker 1: the travel guy. What a sweetie, what a sweet sounding guy.
19:30
Speaker 1: He's just got the most friendly voice in the in
19:32
Speaker 1: the entire universe. He always yeah, he's always like quietly
19:37
Speaker 1: delighted to tell you about this this new obscure food
19:43
Speaker 1: he's learned about, or how where you should go and
19:47
Speaker 1: zagreb in spring travel with Rick Steves, it is high
19:51
Speaker 1: Rick Steves bringing you tales of my travels. So Rick
19:56
Speaker 1: Steves is like in his holiday episode, he's and today
20:01
Speaker 1: we're going to hear the very exciting story from the
20:06
Speaker 1: isolated islands of Scotland where they practice something called first
20:11
Speaker 1: footing and very good man, we're both doing it and
20:16
Speaker 1: we love uh so first footing, which again check out
20:23
Speaker 1: Rick show if you haven't yet. He's he's really awesome.
20:25
Speaker 1: He's really call me. He's kind of like the British
20:27
Speaker 1: Baking show, you know what I mean. He's also really
20:29
Speaker 1: into weed. He's he's he's a big um uh legalization
20:34
Speaker 1: guy with like normal I think is the name of
20:36
Speaker 1: the organization that he raps. I just I didn't know
20:39
Speaker 1: that growing up it's kind of like, uh, if you
20:42
Speaker 1: rewatch Bill and Ted as an adult and you go up,
20:44
Speaker 1: this is kind of a star movie totally. So so
20:49
Speaker 1: Rick had this guest on where the guests from Scotland
20:54
Speaker 1: who explains to the tradition of first footing and so
20:57
Speaker 1: after the stroke of mid on New Years, for good luck,
21:01
Speaker 1: the first person to set foot in a house should
21:05
Speaker 1: be a tall, dark male burying a lump of coal,
21:09
Speaker 1: short bread, salt, a black butt like a bun of bread,
21:15
Speaker 1: and we dram of whiskey and then you you trade uh,
21:21
Speaker 1: I think you trade shots. But this it's fun to
21:25
Speaker 1: hear this description and it's something that really brings the
21:28
Speaker 1: community together. I think that's one thing a lot of
21:31
Speaker 1: us are going to be struggling with as we get
21:35
Speaker 1: into one because you know, usually you're out with your
21:40
Speaker 1: friends or you're at someone's house. Um, but as we say,
21:44
Speaker 1: we're gonna make it through this. And uh, if you
21:46
Speaker 1: have the opportunity, as we always say, call your mom,
21:50
Speaker 1: call your mom, call your mom. And I agree, always
21:53
Speaker 1: good advice. Well, I will say uh on the record
22:03
Speaker 1: that I am trying to resolve to to exercise a
22:05
Speaker 1: little more and a lot of it had to do
22:07
Speaker 1: with COVID, you know, sort of ruining the gym and
22:10
Speaker 1: all of that, and then also just like the kind
22:12
Speaker 1: of general malaise that set in um during this year.
22:16
Speaker 1: But I went and got myself a little early Christmas present.
22:19
Speaker 1: I got this thing called it's for the switch. It's
22:22
Speaker 1: called Ring Fit Adventure, yes, yeah, and it's like this
22:26
Speaker 1: weird kind of stretchy band that you mount the week.
22:29
Speaker 1: I'm not the wee those switch controller too, and one
22:32
Speaker 1: of them goes on there, one goes on your leg
22:34
Speaker 1: and it makes you do squats and like all of
22:36
Speaker 1: these things, but all while collecting coins and fighting monsters.
22:39
Speaker 1: So the gamification of exercise is key for me. My
22:42
Speaker 1: favorite thing of the gym was this recumbent bike that
22:44
Speaker 1: had like a video game screen where you would like
22:47
Speaker 1: do like weird little you know, video gaming type adventures.
22:51
Speaker 1: So I have already had a pretty good trackord with
22:54
Speaker 1: this thing. I also got a fit bit, so um
22:55
Speaker 1: that is my low key resolution. I'm not putting a
22:58
Speaker 1: number on it. I'm just kind of being a general
23:00
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to exercise more. I gonna try to
23:03
Speaker 1: you know, get my steps in and all that, um
23:06
Speaker 1: and not like put a clock on it or put
23:07
Speaker 1: a number on weight loss, just kind of try to
23:09
Speaker 1: do a little better in general. How about you been well? Uh,
23:13
Speaker 1: these are ongoing projects, so I don't want to disclose
23:16
Speaker 1: too too much, but I I will say I've got
23:21
Speaker 1: some I got some stuff cooking. And as a note
23:26
Speaker 1: of encouragement, not just you know, but to you and
23:29
Speaker 1: everyone listening. Remember, just because you fall off once doesn't
23:36
Speaker 1: mean the game's over. It's not about the battle. It's
23:39
Speaker 1: the war. You can stumble a step and still be walking,
23:42
Speaker 1: So keep with it. You know where. If you are
23:46
Speaker 1: listening now and you have a resolution, we would love
23:49
Speaker 1: to hear yours and we'll tell you how to get
23:51
Speaker 1: in touch with us at the end of the show.
23:53
Speaker 1: Uh for now, Well, one one last thing we've got
23:56
Speaker 1: to share. It would be remiss if we didn't do this.
23:59
Speaker 1: I think, what is old laying sign? Why do people
24:03
Speaker 1: sing it? It's a good question. Then when we're growing up.
24:06
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, guys, we're growing up. I
24:08
Speaker 1: just sort of accepted it and thought that I didn't
24:11
Speaker 1: understand the lyrics and I was miss hearing them. I
24:15
Speaker 1: thought it was like old laying sign s. I g
24:20
Speaker 1: n E was like a sign. I'm I'm only guessing here,
24:24
Speaker 1: but I'm assuming it has something to do with Old
24:26
Speaker 1: English or like Canterbury Tales, ask kind of that, you know,
24:30
Speaker 1: Middle English. I guess, but let's see. It looks like
24:33
Speaker 1: it's actually a Scottish poem that was officially committed to
24:37
Speaker 1: text in sight by Robert Burns. Uh. And that's according
24:42
Speaker 1: to the very helpful Scotland dot org Um. The melody
24:46
Speaker 1: is actually from an older folk song that was passed around,
24:50
Speaker 1: you know, through oral tradition in Scotland, and then the
24:53
Speaker 1: Scottish Museum took Burns poem and said it to to
24:57
Speaker 1: that tune. And that's according to the English Folk Dance
25:01
Speaker 1: and Song Society mm hmmm. And Burns was thrilled with
25:07
Speaker 1: this literally, he was writing about it in a letter
25:10
Speaker 1: in sight where he said there is an old song
25:13
Speaker 1: and tune which is often thrilled through my soul. And
25:19
Speaker 1: he noted that he was at least inspired to write
25:22
Speaker 1: these lyrics when he heard an old man singing this
25:26
Speaker 1: song and other variations of it that appeared in times
25:30
Speaker 1: gone by. The literal translation of old lenk sign is
25:35
Speaker 1: old long times. But it means something more along the
25:39
Speaker 1: lines of days gone by, once upon a time. So
25:43
Speaker 1: it's a great you know, it's a great song for
25:46
Speaker 1: people to sing along to in a group when maybe
25:50
Speaker 1: there are a couple of drinks in feeling a little nostalgic.
25:53
Speaker 1: I know the end of this year is going to
25:55
Speaker 1: be a time of deep reflection for a lot of us.
25:58
Speaker 1: So maybe you can hop on zoom or maybe we
26:00
Speaker 1: could zoom bombs someone and just start singing old lang side.
26:04
Speaker 1: I wonder, like, have you guys ever had surprise singers
26:08
Speaker 1: like Christmas carolers or something show up to your door,
26:11
Speaker 1: like a Santa gram perhaps, Yeah, something like that. Have
26:14
Speaker 1: you know, well, Carol I've been caroling. I've been a
26:18
Speaker 1: wash sail in a time or two with a group
26:19
Speaker 1: in my mom's neighborhood. It's kind of fun. I have
26:22
Speaker 1: this little tiny red guitar that I strapped on and
26:24
Speaker 1: carried it around and I just tried to kind of
26:27
Speaker 1: play by ear to to whatever the songs that they
26:29
Speaker 1: were singing. It's a lot of fun. But I've never
26:31
Speaker 1: been visited upon by carollers. How about you, Casey? I
26:34
Speaker 1: think once or twice. Yeah, my parents place, uh in
26:37
Speaker 1: the suburbs, like in the little neighborhood there. Um. Yeah,
26:40
Speaker 1: I think there's there's been like a few small groups
26:42
Speaker 1: of carolers kind of walking around doing their thing. That
26:44
Speaker 1: sounds awesome. We associated with Christmas, but maybe we should
26:47
Speaker 1: have more official songs for different holidays, you know what
26:50
Speaker 1: I mean? Where the arbor day carolers? I agree? What's
26:53
Speaker 1: the thing about all the things? Zion? Though it's not
26:56
Speaker 1: it's just kind of like a reflective, fun little tune
27:01
Speaker 1: that has been associated with New Year's but it's sort
27:04
Speaker 1: of about like looking back at you know, the day
27:07
Speaker 1: has gone by, and it's a really good summation of
27:09
Speaker 1: like all of the themes that we've been talking about
27:12
Speaker 1: today from these from these various and sundry um New
27:17
Speaker 1: Year's traditions from around the world that take a lot
27:19
Speaker 1: of inspiration from each other. Yeah. You know what, as
27:22
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, casey uh, if we can find
27:25
Speaker 1: a copyright free version of something like this, can we
27:28
Speaker 1: can we have that plan just under the there we
27:31
Speaker 1: go as we bid. You do what a year ridiculous historians.
27:37
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in, Thank you for
27:39
Speaker 1: sticking with us, Thank you for continually being the best
27:43
Speaker 1: part of our show. Sorry, Casey, your your second, NOLS,
27:48
Speaker 1: third and I'm I'm a strong fourth. Number one is
27:51
Speaker 1: our audience. Uh and that that's this show does not
27:55
Speaker 1: happen without you. Every time we say thank you, we
27:57
Speaker 1: mean it from the bottom of our our little podcasting hearts.
28:01
Speaker 1: And every time we say we want to hear from you,
28:03
Speaker 1: we mean it. So thank you to everyone who shared
28:06
Speaker 1: yours if you shared a story on our Facebook page
28:10
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians, or you've written to us on Twitter or Instagram,
28:16
Speaker 1: or you've followed us as individuals, because you can find
28:20
Speaker 1: us online as ourselves, not just as a show. You
28:23
Speaker 1: can find me exclusively on Instagram. I'm about to be
28:25
Speaker 1: on a little mini vacation, so maybe i'll maybe I'll
28:28
Speaker 1: post some of my vacation Lee activities on there. Um
28:31
Speaker 1: you can find me at how Now Noel Brown, and
28:35
Speaker 1: you can find me at Ben Bullen h s W.
28:38
Speaker 1: Hit me up with your weird history facts sort questions.
28:41
Speaker 1: You can also find me and contact me directly at
28:44
Speaker 1: Ben Bolan on Instagram. Thanks as always to our dear
28:50
Speaker 1: super producer Casey Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams, and if
28:55
Speaker 1: you would like to hear more strange beautiful explorations of
29:00
Speaker 1: all known history. Do check out Ephemeral. I was really
29:02
Speaker 1: listening to some of that and it holds up. It
29:05
Speaker 1: also features a younger Eaton Brown herself. I believe that's right.
29:10
Speaker 1: She does the little isn't the closing alright, it's like
29:13
Speaker 1: with a little kind of sign off at the end
29:15
Speaker 1: of the show or maybe at the beginning, But yeah,
29:17
Speaker 1: she she was much younger at that time, and like
29:19
Speaker 1: she's now basically like a grown adult human person. She
29:23
Speaker 1: just turned twelve and it's freaking weird, um, but yeah,
29:27
Speaker 1: huge thanks to Christopher Haciotes here in Spirit, our research
29:30
Speaker 1: associate extraordinaire, Gabe Louisier Um Jonathan Strickland, the Quister. We're
29:35
Speaker 1: gonna see him more from him in the new year,
29:37
Speaker 1: I guarantee, yes, absolutely. We'd also like to thank Gabe
29:44
Speaker 1: or gobb a has just been insisting. Uh, thanks so
29:48
Speaker 1: much Gabe for helping us make this amazing show. And
29:52
Speaker 1: of course thanks to Eve's Jeff Coat. I just talked
29:55
Speaker 1: with her a little bit earlier. She is out hiking
29:58
Speaker 1: in the wild. She's on adventures. The pictures are awesome.
30:02
Speaker 1: I love it. We'll see you next time, folks. Happy
30:04
Speaker 1: New Year. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
30:12
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
30:14
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.