New Year

I am thinking (a dangerous task for the likes of me!) about this New Year tradition we all seem to have. You know, where people celebrate the changing of the calendar, pretending that they are leaving an old era for a new. It is of course a silly connotation, for calendars and years are arbitrary concepts. Yet those people who wear funny hats, drink too much, shoot fireworks and the rest to celebrate the coming of "new year" do seem to believe something new and different begins on January 1st.
Apart from the old new year celebration, when the calendar did not begin with January 1st but rather was attuned to the spring crop season, the modern world has been celebrating January 1st as the beginning of the new year for hundreds of years. It's all so symbolic too. For example, the tradition of using a baby to signify the new year is tied to the old Greek way of parading a baby in basket as a symbol of rebirth.
And the idea of people celebrating together festively on New Year's Eve ws because it was thought that luck could be controlled by what one did on the first day of the year. Thus the party that goes on as the new year starts. And certain goods are symbolic too. The Dutch think that eating donuts on New Year's brings good luck.
My own parents used to cook a good luck meal of corn beef, cabbage and black eyed peas that they ate every New Year's Day. But the form of New Year's Eve celebrations now is different. It is more a party without symbol, that being forgotten in favor of an excuse to over eat and drink to much. I some cases it is a drunken orgy. But why do we follow those old superstitions and New Year's customs.
I think we celebrate the changing of the calendar because it is an opportunity to purge our memories of the bad things we suffer each year. There is little talk of the good events of a passing year. instead, most people pay tribute to the idea that by acknowledging the changing of the calendar they can actually make that event real.
Thus, these days New Year's isn't celebrated for symbolic reasons, but in the belief that there really is a difference between December 31st and January 1st. They make resolutions to the new year and offer toasts to the death of old because they really think it effects what will come. Of course, in reality it matters not whether one celebrates New Year's Day. But we might feel guilty all year if we don't.
So toast the New Year Every December 31st if you like. I am usually fast asleep while yo are doing it. And since we are in a new year now, it's time to look at some of the memorable 2005 Bush quotes. Paul Payack has announced this year's award winning Bush quote, an award for the most outrageous remark made by the inarticulate Bush. the winner this year is "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job", the ill timed phrase from bush about the inept and disgraced former head of FEMA. Brown was the guy who mishandled the relief effort to millions following Hurricane Katrina. It seems only Bush believed Brown did a heckuva job".
See other Bush notables for 2005 were:
1) Proof that when one can't speak the language he can create substitute vocabulary for it- Bush created two new words "misunderestimate" (he meant "underestimate") and "embetter" (supposed to be about making someone emotionally better).
2) "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." (In explaining his communication strategy) 3) "I think I may need a bathroom break Is this possible?" (Bush asking Secretary of State Condleeza Rice for permission to poo during a U.N. Security Council meeting)
4) "The notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." (A confusing Bush clarification)
5) "In terms of timetables, as quickly as possible, whatever that means." ( IN explaining the Bush timeline for reforming Social Security)
6) "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law?" (I didn't know that!).
My God! We have 3 more New Years of Bush............