New Year’s eve is less than a week away. We always try and make some sort of plan whether it’s a big one or little one to celebrate the New Year coming in. Sometimes there’s alcohol involved and sometimes it’s a very late night.
All over the world, it’s a special time celebrated in various ways, even though some seem really crazy.
England, the country that I always think is closest to us in traditions, has a really strange custom. The Brits believe that the first guest to enter through the front door after the new year rings in, should be a young, dark-headed, male bearing gifts such as bread (to be fed), salt (to be wealthy) and coal (to stay warm). After all, to begin with, who wouldn’t like to see a young, dark-haired, male enter the door … any time?
The New Year tradition in Japan is quite different. The family arrives in mass and they both clean and decorate the entire house together. The natural decorations are made of pine branches, plum blossoms and bamboo. This all spells celebration for getting ready for 2020.
In Puerto Rico, which is an extremely different country, the same occurs. There, they also clean everything including the car, the garden and even the streets. They also have a practice of throwing buckets of water out the window in order to do away with the bad juju of last year. Some years have witnessed more of that than others.
In South Africa, they take the cleaning to an entirely new level. I never realized cleaning was such a big deal for the New Year. (I must be behind a little bit.) They throw out their old furniture and appliances from the windows of tall buildings (think of throwing refrigerators this way). This action somehow helps to make the New Year bright. It’s actually a very serious health hazard. No kidding!
And finally, in China they want to symbolize happiness and good luck in the New Year by painting their front doors red. In general, red for New Year’s Eve in China is important, with red packets of money for children, red packets for married couples and red lanterns to accentuate looking for the red … hmmm.
Of course, Americans have traditions and one of the most prevalent is the resolution game. I use to make resolutions all the time and never did very well keeping them. That made me feel guilty. Why is it, we seem to have no more stamina than a noodle in keeping our resolutions?
Some have reported that only 8 to 12 out of every 100 people keep their new resolution for an entire year! How could you keep a resolution for an entire year? I find that unbelievably difficult.
My suggestion is that in order to keep your own mental health stable, you might only make resolutions that you’re going to keep. What would those be?
There are some who resolve to diet more and just eat better. One interviewee said, “I will break my other New Year’s resolutions in the first week and I will probably diet for two weeks and go back to eating pretty much anything I want after that.” Well, at least they made an attempt at something.
Another said, “I promise to tolerate fools more gladly and calmly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.” And from another, “I make no resolutions for the New Year. In that habit of making plans, I’m criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life. It’s too much of a daily event for me.”
Then there are these one-liners as suggestions for resolutions – consider taking up new hobbies such as procrastination, now or maybe later. Then there’s some who try to come up with better passwords, like more creative than password.
Often our New Year’s resolutions are just for a bit of fun … to see how much we can do of it and let others enjoy our success or moderate failure. Remember, a New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other (I couldn’t resist the pun).
So the year 2020 is soon approaching. It will be Leap Year and will offer us some interesting choices for celebrations during the year. For instance, Valentine’s Day will be on a Friday and Cinco de Mayo is on taco Tuesday. How great is that! Then Halloween will be on a Saturday and Christmas and New Year start a three-day weekend since they will be on Friday. I guess we have to really say, “Thank you, Leap Year!”
So, here are some safety tips for dealing with the winter in the beginning of 2020. “Install winter tires, drive south, continue until you see palm trees, and apply brakes and sunscreen!”
In the coming year of 2020, I wish you more happiness, less drama, more sleep, less stress, more exercise, less junk, more laughing, and less worry. Happy New Year!
(Melanie Behrens – melb@marysvillejt.com)