Sandhya Vasudev
New Year, that is, the first of January, was around and social media platforms were flooded with messages and videos.
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I remember a colleague who would be attired in everything new including new shoes, socks and handkerchief. A few others would attend office bleary eyed, having stayed up late cutting cakes and celebrating with family and friends.
We family members much earlier during teen years had a practice of calling up one another at midnight December 31 and wishing Happy New Year. The telephone lines were sure to be engaged and available only after several attempts.
In retrospect, I wonder as to what has made anyone celebrate the New Year. It is merely a numeral change and the day will be like any other. Is it the feeling that something old has passed by and the anticipation that the number change will bring about a change in one’s fortunes? From centuries the years have been marked to chronicle history. A little peek behind the celebration of January 1 as the New Year will help.
In ancient Egypt, the New Year began in mid-July when the brightest star, Sirius, appeared in the sky. In ancient Rome, the New Year began in March (known as Martius) when new heads of state took over power. A later king added two more months, Ianuarius and Februarius to cover the winter period. Ianuarius was incidentally named to honour the God of beginnings, Janus. When Julius Caesar took power in 46 BC, he got experts to create a new solar calendar which was the Julian calendar, and the civil year officially began on January 1. But this calendar had a discrepancy and by the mid 15th century it was off the solar cycle by many days. The Catholic church noticed this and Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar, and thus the Gregorian calendar was born which also formalized January 1 as the beginning of New Year.
Although different cultures have different new year traditions like Pongal, Ugadi, Baisakhi, Navroz, Hijri, Diwali, the Gregorian calendar has now been adopted as the international-standard civil calendar for official purposes. So is it any wonder that everyone celebrates the change in calendar year?
Let it be a time to reflect on what went wrong and right, and the possible reasons behind them. It is a time to learn from past mistakes and to motivate oneself to go forward in a different way, never to commit the same blunders. It is a time to promise oneself that come what may, to spread positivity, and to speak up against injustice and oppression, both at personal and social levels. It is time for new calendar resolutions and promises to oneself of patching up, forgiving and forgetting. The calendar helps to chronicle events and consequent memories, so let us signal creation of new memories, hopefully better than before.
Wishing everyone all the best for the year 2025.
