December 31 Holidays

New Year’s Eve is the final day of the Gregorian calendar year — celebrated globally with countdowns, fireworks, and the ritual marking of one year’s end and another’s beginning, a tradition documented in Mesopotamia in 2000 BCE and formalized in the Roman calendar under Julius Caesar. National Champagne Day celebrates the sparkling wine of the Champagne region of France — whose méthode champenoise secondary fermentation in the bottle produces the fine persistent bubbles that have made it the universal symbol of celebration, with 299 million bottles produced annually. Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year’s Eve celebration — the most elaborate secular festival in the Scottish calendar, involving first-footing (visiting neighbors after midnight with coal, shortbread, and whisky as symbols of warmth and prosperity) and the burning of the old year in community bonfires. No Interruptions Day was established to encourage people to spend December 31 completing all the tasks, projects, and conversations they have been interrupting and deferring all year.