Celebrating the New Year is an ancient custom dating back 4000 years to the Babylonians. It had something to do with a New Moon and Vernal Equinox and such, but exactly why they selected this time of year to celebrate is not really known. It seems to have no real agricultural significance and that’s what most people planned their lives around in those days. Maybe it was a slow time of year and they just wanted to party! And party they did for eleven days.
Various cultures continued these customs but since the calendars were always being tampered with it wasn’t until Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 46 B.C. that January 1 became the New Year. Of course in order to get the whole thing synchronized, the previous year had to last 445 days, but that’s a different story.
Ushering in the New Year is celebrated in various ways by different cultures. Some Moslems wear new clothes. Some Asians release birds and turtles. Some Japanese eat rice cakes. Some Hindus leave shrines next to their beds. Then some countries such as Thailand, Nigeria, Uganda, and Cambodia temporarily depose their kings and set up temporary kings. In Scotland the old year is banished by making a dummy and parading it through town. Then it is buried, drowned or burned. The dummy is called (and I take great offense at this) the Auld Wife.
When America and Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, January 1st became our New Year’s Day, too. Just like in ancient times some of us usher in the New Year by going to parties. Although they don’t usually last eleven days like in the good old days.
Some of us older people like to usher in the New Year by watching television. We watch the Tournament of Roses parade, we watch football, and we watch a huge lighted ball fall to the ground in New York’s Times Square as we count down “ten, nine, eight, seven, etc…” to the New Year.
However you choose to celebrate all I can say is, “May your days be merry and bright.” Whoops! That’s a Christmas song. This poem from Martin Luther might be more appropriate…
Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
God is in the highest heaven. His Son is His gift to us. The angels sing His glory and so should we! We are alive! We have so many reasons to celebrate. So I wish all of you a glad New Year! In the words of Martin Luther, “A glad new year to ALL!”
