Happy New Year!
Don Coldsmith
Friday, December 29, 2006
BY THIS TIME, we’ll have heard “Happy New Year” so many times that it’s old stuff. I guess we need it, a chance in some way or other, to forget all the mistakes we’ve made in the past year. For some, more than others, probably.
Traditionally, it’s a sort of a fresh start. We look over all the mistakes we’ve made in the past year, and often, I fear, we promise ourselves not to make some of the more foolish ones again. Of course, we usually have no trouble finding new ways to look foolish.
We sometimes make a list of New Year’s resolutions. In simplest terms, “I resolve not to do THAT again,” thinking of some of our bigger mistakes. Actually, we can’t do anything AGAIN. We can do something similar and equally foolish.
The celebration of the New Year must go back to early, primitive man. It must have been frightening to see the sun fading, seen for a shorter and shorter time each day. There must have been some connection in human thinking that suggested that the sun’s fire, which warms the earth, was going out. With or without some sort of deity who might be angry at humans, a dying fire needs fuel. Maybe we could help.
In a great many cultures, the celebration was marked by dances of supplication and prayer, and giant bonfires and ritual dancing to try to convince the Sun deity to “Give us another chance. We’ll do better.” At least, this was probably the theory for some early civilization.
And behold, it worked! The days became longer again and no doubt the high priests or medicine men of that day were quick to take the credit for bringing back the sun. A new start! Erase all the results of the past season and start over.
Along with this, there is the prestige which was claimed by the holy man or perhaps demanded.
People, then and now, have had reason to put behind us any misdeeds at such a time.
There’s also the tendency to resolve to do better. This leads to the custom of New Year’s resolutions. It’s a good time to vow to accomplish something. To do a better job, lead a better life, improve on our minor faults. Some of us don’t have minor faults, of course, but this is a time to study the topic. Maybe, even, some faults that could hardly be classed as minor.
My brother once resolved that he would no longer annoy any hippopotamus by throwing eggs at them. An easy resolution, of course. He had never even had an opportunity to do so, anyway.
Several times, I have made a list of New Year’s resolutions and have usually lost or misplaced the list by the time I needed to review them to see how I might have scored. Maybe the whole thing is to just make a vague attempt at a promise to do better if we can.
Face it. We have a pretty good idea of what some of our shortcomings are. If we have any doubts, we could learn, I’m sure, by inquiring information from a friend, roommate, spouse, sibling — well, you get the idea. Admittedly, seldom will one of us ever resort to this.
Historically, the new start of the year has not always been on the shortest day, however. It isn’t, now. Various civilizations have had variable calendars. The accepted date in most of today’s world is January 1, the first day of the Gregorian calendar, introduced in the 1500s. It replaced the Julian calendar, which would place the new year about two weeks later.
Various religions have celebrated the new year at various times, but most of the world now uses the first of January, Gregorian calendar. That misses the “shortest day” tradition, which would be a bit earlier, but it works. We’re usually ready for a clean slate and a fresh start. Happy New Year!
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.
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