On New Year’s Eve, Israelis hit hay early
Though December 31 celebrations are increasingly popular, Israelis still go to bed before most of the world
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While much the world will partying well into the early hours of 2015 Thursday morning, new data shows Israelis are more likely to be snoozing away after turning in earlier than almost everyone on New Year’s Eve.
The data was collected by Jawbone, a maker of wearable athletic activity monitors, which collected its users’ New Year’s Eve bedtimes in 2013 and grouped them by geographical location.
Russia topped the list of countries that stayed up latest on December 31 last year, while Israel and China on average went to sleep the earliest.
According to Jawbone’s data, Israelis went to bed at 12:45 a.m., with only an average of 67.4% of them awake at midnight. The company attributed the early bedtime to Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which overshadows the Gregorian January 1 celebration.
In China, the country with the earliest average New Year’s bedtime at 12:42 a.m., the finding was explained by a similar reason — the Chinese New Year is much more widely celebrated than the December 31 holiday.
The report said Russians have an average New Year’s bedtime of almost 4 a.m., explaining that the late-night partying stems from Christmas being banned in the Soviet era, resulting in a joint celebration of both holidays.
Though New Year’s, known as Sylvester in Israel, is not an official holiday, increasing numbers of Israelis have chosen to celebrate the occasion, with parties abounding.
The Times of Israel Community.