The First Night tradition, as far as I'M aware, may have started in Boston for the New Year of 1978. If not, a good guess would be that it was started sometime during the 70's, and in New England. It was designed to be an alternate to the usual New Year's Eve celebrating in bars, etc, that revolved around imbibing as much alcohol as possible. It also gave people a chance to see short segments of various forms of entertainment, either cheaply, or for free, within walking distance from one another. The custom has spread around to other towns in other states, but I'm not sure how far outside the Northeast US it may have gotten.

Well, McGrath, I guess we're not the same old colonies that we used to be. The US is quite diverse, and there are generalizations that you can make based on the region. The Appalachian Mountains of the Southeast were settled largely by Scotch-Irish, and you will find many similiarities in the trad Appalachian culture, and that of the Scotch-Irish. They include brewing whiskey, drinking heavily, feuding among various clans, etc. Not to try to say that these generalizations hold up in ALL cases, but enough to give the region's culture a different flavor than that of some other regions.

But anyway, what I still don't know is, who is Les Barker, and why should I try to go see him?

Marymac