Happy New Year!
It seems obligatory to write a post about making New Years
resolutions. So I won't...I won't even think about it!
Instead I want to think about the past year. I want to
remember all the people who I have lost and the people I have gained.
Losing and gaining people in your life is more than just deaths and
births. Sometimes it is when somebody new moves into the neighborhood or
someone old moves out. It can also be when you gain a friend or lose a
friend. Or it could be when you marry or divorce. There are many
ways to gain and lose people in your life.
Life Support
Touching fingers
Sparking hearts
Flames
Fire
Red Hot
A touch of water
Some added fuel
Rain
Sweat
Umbrella for a season
Drenched
Extinguished
Freezing hearts
Waving fingers
My hope and prayer for you in this New Year is to hold onto
those who are in your life. Do whatever it takes to keep the fires of
friendships and passion burning. Love greatly. Listen
intently. Live devoted.
On January 1 in history:
45 BC...the first New Year celebration occurs on January
1. This coincides with the release of the Julian calendar. The
first swimsuit edition featuring Cleopatra was released two years later.
404 AD...the last gladiator competition was held in
Rome. Several in attendance were heard to announce, "We were not
entertained!"
1801 AD...Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi became the
first person to discover an asteroid. He named it Ceres. He celebrated
with a serious pizza from Papa Joe's.
1926 AD...The Rose Bowl was broadcast on radio nationwide for the first time. One announcer was heard saying (after seeing the best player) "Oh, the Heisman-ity!"
The History of New Years celebrations:
The first New Years celebrations were held in Mesopotamia
starting around 2000 BC. They held their celebrations around mid-March in
order to coincide with the vernal equinox. The Romans moved the
celebration to March 1.
Somewhere around 153 BC the Romans added in the months of
January and February. Some people started celebrating New Years on the
first of January. Then in 567 AD the Council of Tours abolished the
January 1 date and people kind of started choosing their own date to
celebrate the arrival of a new year. Some celebrate on December 25
in honor of the birth of Christ. Some celebrated on March 1 like the
Romans. Some celebrated on March 25 in honor of the Feast of
Annunciation. Some celebrated it on Easter, which, as it is today, moves
around on the calendar. Eventually the Gregorian calendar (1582)
restored January 1 as the date for New Years. Britain waited until 1752
to celebrate the New Year on January 1. Until then they celebrated on
March 25.
So the history of New Years is kind of a mess. Most
nations today celebrate on January 1, but there are those who celebrate at
different times.
Canadian/Americans...dual citizens who go by the title of
Canmericans...celebrate on June 47. This date was chosen because it
honors both metric and American standard time measurement.
Most of what is written above is true. The names and dates are not recommended for verification.
Thank you for reading. If you have an interesting New
Years tradition why not comment below? Thanks, and Happy New Year!
For the last many years my wife and I have celebrated our wedding anniversary on New Years eve as it serendipitously corresponds with our wedding date on December 31st. An amazing coincidence. Nonetheless, a group of people, friends of ours, celebrate New Years evening too and we have just as often gathered at one couple's cottage in particular because their consistent hospitality exceeds expectation of anyone else--and they deliver.
ReplyDeleteBut not so this past year of 2018. They bailed on us, leaving us to disperse into our own abodes, although at least one co-dependent couple followed them, by air, to their destination in Plymouth County, Massachusetts and surprised them soon enough to help carry their luggage into their vacation home along the seashore, see? They were stunned beyond comprehension. Others soon followed, as was designed, two nearby forest dwellers and their canine companions, a South Dakota Hunting lodge owner and her husband a former NFL/Super Bowl player, and a nautical sea-going couple and all their luggage and trunks of varied gear, who are now on their maritime way to Florida to live on their sailboat until the end of March.
My wife and I remained home to house-sit the first couple's house and cottage, having my daughter and her husband for company until December 30th., whereupon the outside temperatures plummeted and we were forced to remain sedentary among the many plates of leftover Christmas candies and holiday dishes the daughter and son-in-law brought with them from their festive gatherings of school friends and extended family. A great time.
Running about the house at the presumed stroke of midnight, looking at 3-4 different clocks on stove, microwave, kitchen wall, dining room wall--and finally finding the cellphone, I grabbed up my 30-30 lever action rifle and stepping out the backdoor, did what I used to do, firing off seven rapid-fire shots across Mikinaak Creek. Happy New Year to you and yourn!
Classic Wannaskan Almanac historical narratives in today's post and Steve's comment; I'm looking forward to another fabulous year with all my fellow contributors!
ReplyDelete