01/01/2016
https://www.facebook.com/Historical.Honeybee.Articles/posts/947826065271890
Happy New Year!
'Happy New Year'
A Person Fed Honey On New Year's Day Stays Sweet All Year. - German Custom
Image: "Honey Hour Glass"
Happy New Year! -from: Historical Honeybee Articles - Beekeeping History
If you would remain sweet throughout the year eat honey on New Year's day. This prescription was given at the eighteenth annual meeting of the Chicago Northwestern Beekeepers Association during a discussions to the best means of producing a demand for honey. It was pointed out that in Germany honey was found on every table and was used far more extensively than in America. On New Year's day, it is said, every person in Germany eats honey in order that that his disposition might remain sweet during the whole year. -The Washington Post, December 24, 1914 Washington, District Of Columbia
This is probably a Judaism tradition from central Europe which includes Germany. Before supper, a sweet apple with new honey is always eaten by the family , in anticipation of a "sweet new year ." Other parts of Europe, honey is eaten New Years Eve or New Years Day to bring good luck in the new year, or sometimes translated as bringing a sweet new year, or other similar interpretation.
Romans would celebrate January 1st by offering sacrifices to Janus in the hope of gaining good fortune for the New Year, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties. This day was seen as setting the stage for the next twelve months, and it was common for friends and neighbours to make a positive start to the year by exchanging well wishes and gifts of figs and honey with one another.
