Of all the holidays you know, which do you think was the very first one to have its own special celebration? Birthdays? Christmas? Easter? The Fourth of July? Actually, it was New Year, and in this book you'll see how children and adults celebrate the New Year holiday in twenty-five different countries.

Each chapter of the book is about a New Year celebration in a particular country. You'll find out why Austrian girls throw their slippers behind them... why no Belgian boy wants to be a New Year's "Sylvester"... why Chinese children have to be especially good on New Year's Day... how children in Thailand celebrate by releasing birds and fish... and much more. You'll even learn how to say "Happy New Year" in more than a dozen languages!

You will visit twenty-four countries—Brazil, the Congo, Egypt, Greece, India, Mexico, Turkey, and seventeen more—as they welcome the New Year. Then you'll return home for our own holiday in the United States. You probably will be surprised at the differences in celebrating the same holiday in other parts of the world. You may also be surprised to discover that some far-off youngsters and adults act very much as we do here. But one thing is certain! Next to an actual New Year's party with your family and friends, reading about New Year in this book is the most fun.

From the dust jacket