Happy New Year 2011

Yes. It's December 31st. I can only blame my long absence on the kerfuffle that leads up to the Christmas holiday, the weather and the recovering from aforesaid holiday. Throw in maintenance health visits, etc. and the time flies! Considering the drama of the recent weather across the world, I hope that everyone is where they want to be, and that they're safe now.

New Year's Eve and day is a funny ole holiday. It's kind of a between-times holiday with a certain amount of unreality for me. As a child I remember these riotous parties my parents would throw, the ball would drop in Times Square in New York City and everyone would leave 1/2 hour later. Aside from having to relearn how to write the year, my overall feeling was "is that it????" Thank goodness some cities and towns have at least started having fireworks to mark the calendar turn over. More fun.

I also find it fascinating that it is a national holiday. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE having holidays off from work and life. It's just that aside from a page turning on the Gregorian calendar (thus refreshing the calendar industry), New Year's is rather a non-event. New Year's doesn't even have a pagan or cultural figure attached - there's no planetary movement or St. Valentine. Heck, the Super Bowl conjurs up more excitement (not to mention domestic repercussions).

I'm wondering if it became a holiday out of sheer necessity. The necessity of recovering from the widespread consumption of gallons of alcoholic beverages "celebrating" the end of the old year - that the first day of the new year had to be devoted to hangovers. Perhaps it was done so the industrial workforce could simply blow off steam - in a culturally approved manner. Certainly, it's a great idea to review the year that's past and make new goals for the new year. Or was it simply so that the over imbibers could count their sins from the night before?

The practice of New Years celebrations seems to be mainly a European export which has, in the last 100 years, taken over much of the Northern Hemisphere. Folks who celebrate religious new years - rather than calendar new years - I wonder what they think of all this hoopla. How did the Gregorian calendar seem to rule the world's timekeeping? Was it one of the Popes? Can we point to the Catholic church? The industrial revolution? Politics? or simply Money?

Whatever the cause, however you choose to mark this eve and day - or not - I wish you a Joyful, Healthy, Prosperous and Loving 2011!