Here we go again

Brian Wilson

In a few short days 2023 will be over.

People will gather to celebrate and say goodbye to the year that was and welcome with hope — and a bit of anxiety — the coming of the new year.

In many ways the celebration is as artificial of a holiday as they come.

Throughout history, the date of marking the passing of one year to another has varied. In some places and times, the years were marked by some local event such as when a ruler took office.

At other times, and more broadly, the marking of one year to another was tied to some celestial event. This allowed a greater degree of uniformity and sense of gravitas, especially as trade and interaction between different groups of people increased.

The equinox is the equinox no matter if you are in Barbados or Sweden as are the summer and winter solstices. Although in that regard, the solstices play a bigger role in everyday life the further north and south you go. For those folks up by the arctic circle who haven’t seen the sun for a while now, the knowledge that it is only going to get brighter from here on out gives you something to look forward to. Unless, of course, you are a vampire, and then I suppose you would be just as happy if it was dark and gloomy all the time.

Vampires aside, choosing 10 days after the winter solstice as the date to celebrate the start of a new year seems a little odd. Other than perhaps 10 being a number most people with the average amount of fingers and toes can count to rather handily.

Yes, it is ok to groan at that off-hand pun. I groaned while writing it.

I am certain the somewhat arbitrary nature of picking January 1 as the start of the new year has some practical and really boring reason behind it.

If I wanted to expend a minimum amount of effort I suppose I could look it up. It is mind boggling to think that in my youth “looking it up” would mean getting someone to drive me to a library or perhaps pulling the dusty encyclopedias off the shelf.

I remember our teachers lecturing us about how we should not use the encyclopedia as a source when doing assignments, but should instead take the time to do original research. At the time, I remember thinking that they must have had much more free time than we did.

In high school I had a teacher who shared a somewhat apocryphal story about how his primary way of grading papers was to put letter grades on each of the steps in his house and he would go to the top step and toss them in the air and your grade would depend on where they landed. I am not sure if I should have believed him or not, but I did well in the class so I am not complaining too much.

Sorry, I kind of lost track of where we were just then. We were supposed to be talking about calendars and the arbitrary and fleeting nature of time and by some long and meandering path I would ideally wrap this up with some heartfelt message that would cause your eyes to glisten on this cold, dark night and prompt you to cut this column out and put it on your refrigerator.

I don’t know that I have it in me though. I’m tired and looking forward to a couple days off. You see, the past year has been something of a blur racing from one thing to another. There was always some drama that seemed important at the moment, but fades with time into the background. There is a lesson in that I suppose.

Life is an ongoing lesson. It is a lesson in patience, in hope, in humility, in love and in loss. The various pitfalls test our mettle.

It knocks us down and challenges us to stand up again.

Lessons learned are best shared. In sharing the hardwon knowledge we may in some incremental way make the path easier for another.

Perhaps, if for no other reason, that is why we shout into the darkness and sing off-key songs with friends and strangers to chase off the old year and welcome the new one.

But what do I know? Regardless of any of my wandering thoughts, I hope you have a happy and safe New Year.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.