Merrill Lych closes it's doors.

Merrill Lynch workers stand, applaud, say goodbye.

New York City investment bank Merrill Lynch has seen its last day.
As of Thursday the company will be part of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. At the closing bell on New Year's Eve on the fifth floor of the World Financial Center in Manhattan, Merrill Lynch & Co.'s employees held what's known as a clapoff: Hundreds of them stood and applauded solemnly to pay tribute to their company. Merrill Lynch lost billions of dollars in the subprime mortgage crisis. Some employees say Wednesday's clapoff was to mark the end of the company and the end of a very bad year. The clapoff is a tradition that was used when people left the firm or retired.

First Baby of 2009 Born At the Stroke Of Midnight

What are the odds? Right on the stroke of midnight, as fireworks lit up the Toronto sky to ring in 2009, the city's first baby of the year was born.

Baby Nyla Adrianna (pictured) came into the world at Toronto East General Hospital, oblivious to the celebrations going on around her.

"Twelve o'clock on the dot she came out.They did the countdown in our room," revealed new dad Paul Gonsalves. "As soon as she came out, everyone started cheering."

Mother Erica Dumont agreed.

"There was an audience in there as I was pushing."

But she managed to keep her composure throughout the entire delivery, which, relatively speaking, was a breeze. Nyla weighed in at 5 pounds, 14 ounces.

"They were surprised I was eight centimetres dilated when I came in because I was so calm. And I was just laughing. [Paul] was making me laugh."

It was something of a photo finish in the race for the title of first new year baby.

About two seconds later, Chantal and Roberto DiMarco became the proud parents of a healthy baby girl, 7-pound Milana Amelia, at the Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga.

"I'm just glad she's healthy. That's all that matters, really," noted Roberto.

Chantal had been in labour for most of Wednesday, which also happened to be her 32nd birthday.

Baby number three was a little girl also born in Mississauga at Credit Valley Hospital.

And eight seconds into the new year, baby boy Martin popped out at North York General Hospital.

Peruvian Jesus born to Virgin Mary on Christmas

Virgin Mary, a 20-year-old Peruvian woman, gave birth to a baby boy on Christmas day and named him Jesus, Peru's state news agency said on Friday.

The baby's father, Adolfo Jorge Huamani, 24, is a carpenter. Religious Peruvians compared him to Joseph the Carpenter in the Bible.

"Two thousand years later the story of Bethlehem is relived," read the headline about the birth in El Comercio, the main newspaper in Peru, a predominantly Catholic country.

The mother, Virgen Maria Huarcaya, delivered the 7.7 pound (3.5 kg) boy, Jesus Emanuel, in the early hours of Christmas at the central maternity hospital in Lima, the capital.

"A few days ago we had decided to name my son after a professional soccer player," the father said. "But thanks to a happy coincidence this is how things ended up."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Well it's another year....

But for what reason??

"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets under way.

But the day celebrated as New Year's Day
in modern America was not always on January 1st.

ANCIENT NEW YEARS The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon approximately 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).

The beginning of spring is a pretty logical time to start a new year.
After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, It's safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.

The Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.

In order to set the calendar right, in 153 BC, the Roman senate, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.

During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years.
January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only the past 400 years (give or take).


NEW YEAR TRADITIONS
Other traditions of the season include the making of New Year's resolutions.

That tradition also dates back to the early Babylonians. Popular modern resolutions might include the promise to lose weight or quit smoking. The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment to there rightful owners.

The Tournament of Roses Parade, dates back to 1886. In that year, members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers. It celebrated the ripening of the orange crop in California.

Although the Rose Bowl football game was first played as a part of the Tournament of Roses in 1902, it was replaced by Roman chariot races the following year. In 1916, the football game returned as the sports centerpiece of the festival.

The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

Although the early Christians denounced the practice as pagan, the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to re-evaluate its position. The Church finally allowed its members to celebrate the new year with a baby, which was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.

The use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic representation of the new year was brought to early America by the Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.

FOR LUCK IN THE NEW YEAR
Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends.

Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.

Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day.

AULD LANG SYNE
The song, "Auld Lang Syne," playing in the background, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.
At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700's, it was first published in 1796 after Burns' death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. An old Scotch tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days." Can't remember the words? The lyrics can be found here.