New Year is Couth Africa is celebrated in accordance to the Georgian calendar on its first date of January 1. The energy, dynamism, and colorful festivities during the time of New Year, in particularly on the New Years Eve, certainly make South Africa as a perfect place for having New Year celebrations.
South Africa hosts big stage parties during New Years Eve. South Africa is a perfect destination for all those, who wish to be a part of something extravagant and royal during New Years Eve.
The daytime is usually spent relaxing with family, friends, and relatives. Also, most of the people keep their New Years Eve reserved for spending it with only near and dear ones. However, community celebrations also occur and accepted on a big scale.
Most of the parties go on all night, concluding in the early morning hours of the New Year’s Day. South African people like to party hard. New Years Eve offer them the much need respite from the routine and hectic life, and thus everyone seem to make the most of it, as if there is no tomorrow. Lavish meals, and lots of music, dance, and cheer all around is one intrinsic aspect of New Years Eve in South Africa. The dishes served during feasts or normal dinners on New Years Eve reflect a blend of the tradition, as well as the season of South Africa. Also, finest of wines are an essential part of celebrations.
Churches ring bells at the stroke of midnight to officially announce the arrival of New Year. With that, everyone cheers out loud, celebrate with joy and excitement, and some of the over-enthusiastic people even fire gunshots in the air. Some of the people also throw fridges off their balconies. However, in the present time, these traditions of forting a gunshot and throwing of fridges have taken a backseat, much because of the risk factor involved in it, and because of the strict legal aspects involved.
The biggest celebrations in absolute aspects occur at Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa. Most of these extravagant events have great music, dancing, dining, drinking, and spectacular fireworks at the offer. In particularly, the music events such as Kirstenbosch Gardens New Years Eve Concert and Rezonance New Years Eve Festival, organized in Cape Town hold a distinctive identity and significance.
The annual event of Cape Town Minstrel Carnival organized on New Years Eve is said to be the biggest party of Cape Town of the entire year. It holds its date back to the nineteenth century. This carnival is extravagant and highly colorful, with thousands of people coming in, and participating in it wearing colorful costumes. According to estimations, around 10,000 costumed performers, singers, dancers, and musicians participate in it. Lots of local performers, street performers, and eminent performers from around the country participate in it. The colorful and vibrant marching bands participating in it are too worthy to miss out for anything. People sing, dance, and cheer all through the procession, while celebrating the time of New Years Eve.
The beautiful beaches in Durban are other prominent and popular destinations during the time. In fact, they remain one of the most visited places in South Africa all around the year, and during the time of New Year, they just get filled to their capacity. The evening parties as organized on beaches, and in the nearby night clubs and bars, offer a perfect way to say goodbye to the last moments of the Old Year, and put a grand welcome to the New Year. Johannesburg, the largest city of South Africa, has some spectacular fireworks show at the midnight. The Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown hosts one of the biggest parties of the town, with around fifty thousand in attendance.