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My question is about a demo countdown JS file script, I'm trying run in a web browser

The demo script works fine, but when I apply  sample code of another format that I’m looking for to the html file script section. It doesn’t display. in the web page

Example: I replaced the default script from the index.html file....

<script>

$(function () {
 var austDay = new Date();
 austDay = new Date(austDay.getFullYear() + 1, 1 - 1, 26);
 $('#defaultCountdown').countdown({until: austDay});
 $('#year').text(austDay.getFullYear());
});
</script>

with the following code....

<script>
$('#defaultCountdown').countdown({since: startYear,    
 format: 'YOWDHMS', description: 'Since New Year'});
</script>

But nothing displays. I did try update the DIV ID with the corresponding name in this case

<div id="sinceCountdown"></div>

I tried various thing, not sure what I'm missing or if its related to the DIV ,  but no joy. Any chance you can point me in the right direction, I’m sure I’m just missing some basic coding principle here