I never fully understood the importance of New Year’s and New Year’s Eve. As a child, I knew it as the winding down of our Christmas vacation. My sister and I would hear the build up to it, starting with the soap operas we got to watch on our break. I kept thinking it must be some big magical thing, the way adults seemed to bustle around for it. It was intriguing, I remember my mother explaining to us that it was a time of the year where we would look at all we have done and decide what needed to be improved or what new things we wanted to do, a vague explanation of what is called “resolutions.” There there was a drinking of something bubbly to end the night and things were supposed to just be better.
Long ago, I stopped making resolutions. I guess you could say that I made a resolution to no longer make resolutions. It has been the one resolution I managed to keep. But what is all of the excitement around this day? Do you still make resolutions? What about this day holds significance for you? Join me as we look at: Starting Fresh: What does New Year’s Mean to You?
Hope for better things to come
Humanity has an amazing gift, the gift of hope. That simple four letter word can inspire us to break the chains that hold us down, it offers a speck of light in the darkness for us to follow to a promise of a better day. So, it would make sense that humans would associate a new beginning to coincide with a date of importance.
In ancient times, this was often related to the equinoxes and especially the spring equinox. This was a time of new growth in plants and animals, alike. Around 46 B.C., Julius Caesar decided to implement what we now know as the solar calendar. January took its name from the Greek god of new beginnings, the two faced Janus. Janus was known for being able to move back to the past and into the future, so honoring him at the beginning of the calendar year seemed appropriate.
Christians being Christians and on the rise around this time, didn’t like the pagan associations with the date, so instead moved it to December 25th. Flash forward to 1582, when Rome decided to institute the Gregorian Calendar and New Year’s Eve was moved up six days to December 31st. Even then, it would take many more years for most of the world to fall in line with December 31st being the end of the current year and the date for New Year’s Eve (NYE).
Now, we have a time in which we can look back at the year we had, take stock of the things that didn’t work, and plan for ways to do better in the coming year. Throw in some debauchery for the night and it’s a sealed deal.
Using the past to resolve the future
I don’t think I ever fully understood why we, as humans, still hold such a place for New Year’s Eve. The idea of writing down things you wanted to change seems good, in theory, but when you are a kid and hearing people do this and then don’t follow through with them often sends mixed signals. I knew as a kid, if I was supposed to do something and I didn’t that there would be punishment involved. So what happens if an adult breaks their resolutions? So why do we do it?
Oddly enough, the tradition of making resolutions dates back some 4000 years, to Babylonia. At their new year celebrations, they would invoke their gods, praying for a better year. That could mean a better harvest, resolving relations with others, or just to be more prosperous. The Romans would make their offerings to Janus and many of them were as simple as asking Janus to ensure that their neighbor would return their tools to them or help in settling a debt. Flash ahead to Christians and they decided to go a more pious way and attempt to learn from their shortcomings and how to be better in the coming year.
As the traditions changed over the years, so did the amount of spiritual significance that was placed upon this time. Now, we see them as more mundane and for promises to exercise more, drink less, and temper our emotions. Is it so weird that the possibility of carry through is no better now, for us asking for personal development, than it was when people were intoning a god to have Steve return their garden tools?
It still comes down to hope. Hope for better.
Traditions abound
Looking back on my childhood, I don’t recall any specific tradition we followed for NYE, well not specifically anyway. I do remember that we often had ham for New Year’s Day but that’s it. I knew others, and still do, that often go for a split pea dish, ham, and a few other things as a means of solidifying prosperity and good luck in the future. As odd as that can sound, especially to a child, that isn’t the strangest of traditions
An old pagan tradition, that is still used by a lot of people today, is the act of opening all the doors and windows of your house, on New Year’s Eve. For most of the northern hemisphere, this is a time of long nights and cold temperatures, so it seems odd to open every window and door of your house. It was meant as a way of letting the negativity of the past year escape your house leaving openings for all the good possibilities to fill it.
In ancient Greece, they had a custom of hanging onions on your door as a symbol of growth and rebirth. As the day went on, the parents would take the onions down and have their children place them on their heads to pass along the good luck of the new year to them.
There are parts of Latin America that held the belief of throwing water out of a window to ensure that negativity would not enter the house. It was a symbol of renewal and a means to say good by to the old year and welcome in the new.
My favorite tradition as a kid was the noise makers. As a kid, you spend most of your time being told to keep it down or to not be so loud. This one magical night of the year you were allowed to use a piece of plastic to make the loudest and most annoying noises the world has ever known. How could a child not love that tradition?
Breaking traditions
As I mentioned, I am not much for New Year’s, making resolutions or the whole traditions around it. I never understood why someone makes this long list of things they want to change and never fulfills it. It took me a long time to get where I am now and the best lesson I have learned is dedication. If you want to change something, it is going to take hard work and time. A list made in haste of the year winding down isn’t going to get you there.
New Year’s Eve still has that finality that it always has had for me, as a child. I see it as the culmination of all the events that have transpired and now I can look forward to new possibilities. This year, it is a means for me to get back to a healthier regimen that has seemed to slip this holiday season. I count myself lucky that I was beside my partner, watching a movie, and just enjoying being with them. Knowing that they are beside me as a new year slowly inches closer to us. I get to spend this new year with them and doing the things that I love. For me, that is the best tradition I can have.
Do you still celebrate New Year’s? What kind of resolutions do you make? Like me, have you given up on making the list and instead try to do a little each day? Maybe you carry over some traditions that your family has always done or some that you started and have special significance to you. Let me know in the comments below.
Oh, and I don’t say this enough, thank you for taking the time to read and be a part of Gay in the CLE. Each of you has made this past year, and the one before it, so very special to me. Knowing you guys are out there reading this is the reason I keep writing. Thank you again and Happy New Year!!!
Gay in the CLE 