Out with the Old – In with the New? Really?

Don’t take it personally, Alan.

Now that I am three quarters of a century old, I get a little testy at this time of year. This whole Father Time Old Year, receding into the night and swaddling-wrapped pudgy Baby New Year bursting forth into the sunrise makes me feel a little, well, discarded. I find myself wondering why human’s have this inherent need for regeneration, starting over, turning a new leaf every twelve months.

New Years is an old tradition

Janus, the two-faced god of gateways, beginnings and transitions was often found above the Roman villa lintel, a blessing on all those who entered and departed. Julius Caesar made Janus the symbol of the New Year in 46 B.C.E. when he instituted the Julian calendar and named the first month of the year after the bi-visaged deity. January and the transition from the old to the new year has been a special time of looking back and looking forward, and buying new gym memberships ever since.

“Last year, I ate my face off; this year I will eat salads twice a day.” “Last year I was mean to my lover; this year I will be the embodiment of Eros-Aphrodite-Cupid-Parvati combined.” “Last year I slowly sank into the couch cushions; this year I will train for the Ironman, lift weights five times/week, take up Salsa dancing, kickboxing,  and Bikram Yoga.” “Last year. . . “ well, you get the idea.

In 1582, Pope Gregory VIII reordered the year to shave the extra eleven minutes in the Julian calendar and bring Easter back closer to the spring equinox. Of course, not everyone liked that. Protestants thought it was a papist plot. England didn’t get around to recognizing the new calendar until 1752, but presumably during those intervening years they still got blind drunk on December 31 and hugged complete strangers at 12:11 a.m. No, wait, scratch that. That’s what Yanks do; Brits simply wouldn’t be comfortable with the hugging bit.

New Years isn’t just Western tradition

Not everyone celebrates the New Year according to what is now the Gregorian calendar and some celebrations are definitely older. The Chinese celebrate in early February and many of the rest of us show up in Chinatowns in our local cities for the paper dragon parades and egg-filled moon cakes. The Korean Seollal, around the same time is a quieter affair and lasts three days versus the Chinese fifteen. Nyepi, the Balinese observance in early March is a day of silent meditation, an inspiring idea, though not exactly a million people squished into Times Square watching the ball drop (not this year).

There is a cluster of cultures who celebrate the New Year around the spring equinox in late March to mid-April:

• Vikram Sawant – the Hindu New Year. There are many different New Year’s days in India; this one seems to be consecrated with giving gifts and blessings.
• Ugaadhi -celebrated in some southern Indian states in early April.
• Pahela Baishakh, Bengali New Year, a mid-April fete in Bangladesh and Northern India with street fairs and music.
• Nowruz -The Iranian New Year is on the equinox, and a mirror is placed in the center of the table, a literal symbol of reflection.
• Kha b’ Nissan is the Assyrian New Year celebrated in parts of Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The name means April 1 and consecrates rebirth with parties and parades and fresh flowers..
• Puthandu, the Tamil New Year and Aluth Avuruth, the Singhalese New Year are observed in Sri Lanka both around April 14, as are the Thai and Burmese New Year.

Then there are the New Year’s celebrations from around the autumnal equinox to the beginning of November:

• Rosh Hashanah -the Jewish New Year in late September, a time of reflection, followed closely by Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. (Something, upon reflection, we all may need to do more of.)
• Hiriji, the Islamic New Year is also celebrated in late September. Shiites and Sunnis both memorialize the holy month of Muharram, when the Prophet journeyed from Mecca to Medina, though in different ways.
• Diwali, the Festival of Lights is jubilated as New Years in some states in northern India
• Samhain, (pronounced Sow-Ihn) is what we came to call Halloween, but ancient Celts and Saxons saw it as a time to communicate with their ancestors in the Other World to prepare themselves for the new year which began November 1. Some I know from my free-spirit days use this time to reflect and renew.

Humans take the New Year seriously

Whatever the day we observe, it is a time to reflect on last year and renew our commitment to the kind of person we want to be in the next.

I grew up as the only person in a family of five born north of the Mason-Dixon line. My father was called Reb at work, and I was sneered at as a Yankee at family gatherings. New Year’s day dinner always had a Southern flair, ham for happiness, rice for riches, black-eyed peas for peace, collard greens and green beans for growth. (The greens and beans were cooked to death with ham hock and fatback. I was twenty-three before I learned that green beans could be crunchy and not have pork in them.) And cornbread, there was always cornbread on New Year’s. I don’t remember what it stood for,  but, slathered with butter and jam, it never started the weight-loss resolutions off on the right foot.

The dinner was a “wishin’ and hopin’” kind of New Year’s resolution. Maybe if I just eat enough rice, I won’t have to work so hard.

In one of my friend’s families everyone had to stand between dinner and dessert and tell their resolutions. Later they were held accountable for achieving them… or not. Ours were more private and less demanding, but we did them and talked about them some. I still use some of the time in late December to reflect and plan.

So this year. . .

This year, 2023, isn’t starting great. Tri-Pandemic of Flu-Covid-RSV filling the hospitals, on-going war and devastation in Ukraine, some pretty substantial extreme weather events and definite areas of economic stress in the world. But also bench proof of nuclear fusion, some global agreement on action on climate change, and despite the risks people are traveling again. Perhaps this year will be the year to broaden our perspectives and to support our families, friends and our disadvantaged communities.

Last year I jumped out of an airplane, got this  blog up, posted essays and stories in five places.  Billie found deeper and deeper levels of her family in her genealogy research. We even travelled to see family on both coasts.

Will this be the year I finally get at least one book published? Will I stop sitting in front of a computer screen so much and eat less and move more? Will I get the five songs that have been waiting lead sheets and copyrights done, or even published? Will she find the transatlantic immigration connection? We do have some plans to go away just us? Oooooowhee!

Whatever happens, I hope we  – and by we -I mean Billie and me, our family, our community, all of you dear readers, and the whole world – has a year better in some way, happier, healthier, with more freedom, clearer fresh breaths, cooler drinks of water, more loving, and more peaceful.

Janus, the old face looks back; Janus the young face looks forward. We cannot spend all our energy focused in either direction. We must be in the present and the now, where “have-been” and “are-becoming” merge.

Have a Happy New Year,  have your new beginnings, but please. . . don’t throw away everything old.