Jan. 1. Feb. 18. April 13. What do these dates have in common? In Hawai'i, they're all New Year's Day.

Here in Hawai'i, where Buddhism looms large on the religious horizon and Asian cultures are interwoven into the fabric of festivals, the New Year's celebration is spread out across the calendar.

And increasingly, immigrant populations observe the Western New Year's tradition as well. Hence the firing of firecrackers on Dec. 31-Jan. 1 all over O'ahu.

Japanese-Americans have long followed New Year's rituals of cleaning the house and going to temple for blessing services. Korean-Americans celebrate both solar and lunar new year, with special services to bring in the new year of the Gregorian calendar, as well as this month's memorial service for the ancestors, called Sulnal. And Chinese-Americans still hold out for the lunar calendar — with a twist.

"The Western-style New Year's (is) an effect of globalization," said Poul Andersen, a professor who specializes in Chinese religions at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. "In China, they've officially adopted solar calendar for anything bureaucratic or official, so (a Jan. 1 New Year's) has become an event, too. They even have Christmas trees, so one shouldn't be surprised."

Which calendar?

Geography often determines which calendar is used.

In some cases, history and shared cultural heritage determine the practice.

Vietnam, for example, which shares a border with China, uses the lunar calendar, bringing a New Year's celebration on Feb. 18. In China, "the ritual calendar has always been geared to the lunar calendar, including the traditional New Year's," Andersen said.

That means the Chinese new year — this year, the Year of the Boar — begins today.

Areas that rely on farming tend to celebrate based on an agricultural calendar: Cambodian-, Thai- and Laotian-Americans have New Year's celebrations in mid-April. It's traditionally a harvest festival that precedes the rainy season.

On Chaul Cham Thmey, as it's known in the Khmer language, Cambodians hold three days of festivities that begin with a visit to the temple in the morning of the first day, explained Savouth "Richard" Chea of the Cambodian Community of Hawaii organization. They chant and meditate, seeking blessings, peace and prosperity for the coming year.

Other rituals on the first day: dressing up, lighting candles on the shrine and burning incense. To pay homage to Buddha, they bow, kneel and prostrate themselves three times before his image and use holy water to wash their face in the morning, their chest at noon and their feet at night before bed, he said.

They're also expected to give to charity and wash their Buddha statues with perfumed water over the course of the festivities.

Laotians and Thai celebrate with Songkran, a water festival in April that can include — at least in Hawai'i — the use of Super Soakers by the young people. Last year's Laotian Songkran on the North Shore and the Thai Songkran in Kapi'olani Park were an occasion for tasty ethnic food, religious rituals and much splashing of water on one another.

Cleansing is a big theme of New Year's across all of Southeast Asia.

DIFFERENT CULTURES, SIMILAR THEMES

Spiritual themes for New Year's often have to do with taking stock, hence the theme of cleansing in many cultures for New Year's, said Chaminade University religion professor Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel, former president of the Hawaii Association of International Buddhists.

"I think people need to renew their energy," she said. "It's a marking of the ending and the beginning. People need that kind of marker, to see where they are."

That's why you see water in many cultures, or washing.

Seeking fortune for the new year is also a big theme. In the Vietnamese culture, children wish their elders luck and are rewarded with red envelopes with "lucky money," usually with an odd number of currency inside, from 3 cents to $1, explains Lien Nhan, a nun in training.

This can be seen, as well, with Chinese celebrations, said Andersen.

"In China, New Year's is really in many ways more important than in many cultures," Andersen said. "It's when everyone becomes a year older. Chinese don't pay a lot of attention to individual birthdays. This would be (a group birthday)."

Another theme that transcends geography: cleaning the house. Many Buddhists use the days before New Year's, no matter where on the calendar it falls, to put their affairs and house in order.

When it comes to the Chinese, "you're supposed to clean house and pay off old debts," Andersen said. "... Your fate in the next year depends on your behavior in this year."