“Throughout the world, all ancient or primitive cultures have held a similar type of ceremony to celebrate the new year. In general, this ritual usually involved someone, who represented the old year, being driven out by someone representing the new year. The new year person usually led a procession of some kind, often made up of dancers or people who jumped and leaped. Such a procession is precisely what occurred during the earliest Olympic festivals in Greece.

There are several myths which describe the origin of these Olympic festivals which were the inspiration for today’s Olympic games. One story tells of a man named Pelops who wanted to marry Hippodamia, the daughter of King Oenomaus…”

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