Why do we make such a fuss about celebrating the start of a new calendar year? A new year marks a new beginning, but so does every day. I guess it’s a chance to close the previous year which, after the year we’ve just had could be well understood. Thinking about this prominent example, Covid hasn’t gone away because the calendar year has changed.
Hope that the new year will be better than the last one is good enough for me to get behind. Although I do wish for each new day to be better than the previous. Seeking constant improvement daily appears easier than waiting until the end of the year to make changes. I suppose a calendar year-end provides us a communal moment of reflection. A time to remunerate as a group, to look back, to remember and also to look forward with hope and positive expectation.
When thinking about my personal new year, that doesn’t start until my birthday inMarch. A birthday celebration does make sense to me and, using the measure of a calendar year to measure this also makes sense. It’s also more personal, which in my eyes makes it a more poignant time to make personal resolutions for your year ahead. After all, resolutions or plans are usually made to benefit or improve the individual rather than the greater good – even altruistic plans have an element of selfishness within them.
This all sounds very negative as if I’m anti-celebrating the new year, but I’m not. We are a tribal species, we are social creatures. We need to come together, to celebrate, and usually need an occasion or reason to base this on, so why not a new year. Having written these words maybe I better understand why the new year is globally celebrated. It’s a point in time we can all stop and pause for a moment, and that has to be a good thing.
Photo by Danil Aksenov on Unsplash