Israel Likes a Party but Is Torn About New Year's

Happy New Year? Not so fast, if you're in Israel, where the somber, soul-searching and autumnal new year of the lunar Jewish calendar overshadows the Gregorian's Jan. 1.

The highly diverse country certainly has its modern and hard-partying side. But even in such circles, where the pull of the outside world is strong, there is a sense, even as champagne is swilled, that New Year's Eve is someone else's party — indeed, maybe everybody else's.

So while there will be plenty of festivities on Dec. 31 — especially in the vibrant and Western-oriented Tel Aviv area, home to one of the world's major high-tech hubs — almost everyone has to work the next day, giving the whole enterprise a somewhat underground, guilt-ridden feel.

Yossi Yosfan, 32, seemed to personify the mixed message: he was planning to attend a large party in Tel Aviv, but insisted that he didn't mind the absence of a public holiday in the morning. "It's not part of Israel's heritage," he said. "It doesn't need to be more than what it is."

In hip neighborhoods like Tel Aviv's Florentin, street parties were planned, poster invitations were up and bars planned to be heaving till the early hours of January 1. But big hotels, of the kind where one might expect a fancy and lucrative affair, were distinctly subdued.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israel-likes-party-torn-years-21371033