It didn’t take long for the Taber New Year’s Baby to be crowned.
Finleigh Doreen May, was born at 2:20 a.m. January 1, 2013 at the Taber Hospital weighing six pounds and six ounces.
Finleigh’s proud parents Jennifer and Nicholas May and two-year-old sister Ruari are excited to announce the arrival of the very first baby born in Taber in 2013.
Jennifer and Nicholas have been living in Taber since 2006. Nicholas, an automotive tech at Chinook Chrysler and a volunteer firefighter and Jennifer, employed at the Heritage Inn.
According to the proud father, Finleigh’s birth was originally scheduled as a C-section later in January but Jennifer had gone into labour on New Year’s Eve 2012, so the bundle of joy came a little earlier than expected. As for similarities or differences between the births of Jennifer’s two daughters, “I had a C-section,” Jennifer said. “Ruari was a C-section as well. She was a bigger baby.” Jennifer also noted her brand new baby seems very content and cozy. Finleigh’s older sister though, seems a bit jealous and not quite sure what to think about having a little sister, as of yet.
According to tradition and history.com, babies born on the first of the year grow up to enjoy the luckiest of lives, bringing joy and good fortune to those around them.  The use of a baby as a personification of the new year has been traced to ancient Greece, where an infant in a basket was paraded around to mark the annual rebirth of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. Sometimes accompanied by Father Time, “Baby New Year” has appeared in banners, cartoons, posters and cards for several hundred years.
A few famous Baby New Years in history include: Betsy Ross, most Americans recognize her as being the creator of the first American flag, this credit is debated by historians; Paul Revere, American patriot; George Washington Carver, American educator; J. Edgar Hoover, American FBI director; J. D. Salinger, American novelist; Kala Sosefina Mileniume Kauvaka, Tongan baby born first in new millennium; Grandmaster Flash, hip hop pioneer, and local Taberite Devin Setoguchi, NHL Minnesota Wild hockey player.