I confess to always having a feeling of trepidation as to what the New Year will bring to my family. I always feel a little left of centre of all the jollification as I think, somewhat warily, we never know what the year will bring. We don’t know really what will happen so the forced gaiety of our celebration could ring hollow one year on. It has never quite made sense.

But then, Oprah Winfrey, diva of US TV said something that resonated with me: “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” The idea of a second crack to improve and do better is certainly appealing. Oprah’s salutation to the New Year rings with a breath of hope, the virtue that overcomes all by its confidence. Hope is the desire of something with the expectation of getting it. No ifs, buts or maybe’s.


A fresh beginning of hopes and desires…

The notion of a fresh beginning mentioned by Oprah is a universal theme of New Year celebrations. Other significant themes are reconciliation and prosperity; common threads that run through the keeping of the festival of New Year whether it be the Lunar New Year celebrated by the Chinese or the Gregorian calendar new year of western countries. No prizes for guessing which Chinese New Year tradition my own children miss from their days in Singapore and Hong Kong. Why, ang pows of course! Their childlike hope of prosperity from their red packets were always fulfilled!

A look at the New Year celebration across the world provides an interesting insight into people’s hopes and desires to ‘get it right’, to have prosperity and the superstition that surround these hopes.

Auckland, New Zealand, which is 310 miles west of the International Dateline is the first place in the world to ring in the New Year. This they do with large street parties, fireworks and carnivals, many of the festivities being like Hogmanay in Scotland from whence many of the population came originally.

…in Europe

Many flock to the streets of the major cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow to celebrate Hogmanay on December 31st (Old Year’s Night) which goes right through the night until Ne’erday (January 1st). Thereafter begins the custom of ‘first footing’ or being the first person to cross the threshold of a friend bringing traditional gifts. There is also the famous Hogmanay delicacy,‘haggis’, the heart, lungs and liver of a sheep mixed with onions and oatmeal which is then boiled in the sheep’s stomach for three hours.

In Germany, the New Year’s Eve celebration is called “Silvester”, after Pope Sylvester who died on December 31st in 355 AD. This name is also used in Austria, Poland and Israel for the last day in the Gregorian calendar. Apart from the customary feasting, dancing and singing, the popular custom called Bleigeissen takes place. A small piece of lead is melted and dropped in a bow of cold water. Revellers believe that their fortunes can be told according to the shape that the lead assumes in the water.

In the Netherlands, people burn their Christmas trees on the street and set off fireworks, believing that the fires will purge the old and welcome the new.

In Greece, New Year’s Day falls on the Festival of St Basil, one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox Church. A food always served is Vassilopita or St. Basil’s cake which contains a silver or gold coin baked in it. Whoever gets the slice with the coin will have good fortune throughout the coming year.

…the South American way…

Further south in Colombia, South America, several unusual traditions are supposed to determine whether people will have good luck or not. Yellow underwear worn inside out or backwards is supposed to guarantee good luck all through the year. Eat 12 grapes as the clock is striking midnight while making a wish for each month of the year. Have an empty suitcase at the ready; immediately after midnight, run around the block with your case and thus invite many travel opportunities throughout the year. Crumple some paper money and pass it rapidly from hand to hand around a circle of friends and family. This is a way of increasing business success and protecting the money you already have. (What a pity we did not know this before the credit crunch!)

This last custom eliminates the need for any financial planning! Simply take three potatoes, peel one completely, leaving no skin on; half peel the second and leave the third with its skin intact. Toss all the potatoes under your bed. At midnight, stick your hand under the bed and pull out one of the potatoes without peeking. If you pull out the potato with its skin intact, things are looking good in the finance department. Half-peeled, well, not quite so rosy, and completely peeled, begin to worry!

…on the African continent…

At the New Year in the very arid country of Sierra Leone in West Africa, the Mandigo tribe honours the commodity that brings them life– water. After cleaning their houses they sweep their yards and troughs and use new utensils to draw their water. The New Year comes at the end of their dry season when sowing of seeds begins. Scorching temperatures and little or no rain or even dew has dried up all their water sources, the grass is all but dead and plant growth has ceased. It is no wonder that the New Year is celebrated as a time when life begins again. Truly, this is the beginning of new life at the New Year, really a rebirth, no symbolism here but a fact of life.

…in the East…

Continuing with the theme of reconciliation and hope and the idea of a chance to get it right, I rather like the Japanese notion as they celebrate Oshogatsu, the most important holiday in Japan, of holding Bonenkai or “forget-the year” parities to say goodbye to the problems and pain of the past year, thus paving the way for a new beginning. In the New Year, old grievances are never mentioned after the tolling of the 108th bell. A new beginning cannot be made on the base of old hurts or unforgiveness or without a desire to do better.

But most of all…

As far as family is concerned, it is the virtue of hope that keeps the members going in difficult times and it is the willingness to forgive that keeps the unit intact. Prosperity is actually the dispensable commodity.

GK Chesterton, takes Oprah’s thought a step further in his usual insightful way: He sums up the highest reason for marking the end of the old year and the beginning of a new: “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul”.

Sources:
New Year’s Traditions From Around the World – Seattle.net
www.infoplease.com/spot/newyearcelebrations.html
Rosary Letter December 2009/January 2010

Paulette lived in Singapore for eight years - she worked for some of these years in one of the big four accounting firms as their writer and editor. Apart from short forays into the working world, her profession is her motherhood.