The New Year

Afternoons are spent playing football, cooking, drinking, dancing, and hanging out with friends. As the evening wears on, with flare-painted skies, and the sound of children throwing firecrackers, people make their way to churches and mosques. There, they count down the final seconds of the old year, welcoming the new year. 

The New Year is more of a cultural phenomenon, bridging traditions and communities worldwide. When the Babylonians graced their New Year's celebration with Akitu and the other civilizations followed, it was about transitions, spiritual triumphs, and thanksgiving to the gods.  And now as we await the bells and countdowns to the new year, with other places like New Zealand and other Southern Pacific countries already in the year, and places far west like American Samoa being the last to cross the interannual bridge, the whole world will hope, wish and pray for a more prosperous year. Just as the Babylonians, Coptites, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans did. And the Italians in their red underwear, the Spanish, behind their doors with a dozen grapes, and in Nigeria, Africa, families, and friends gather in tight circles,  eyes glued to the wall clock, mouth seconding the movement of the seconds, as millions prepare to crossover with intentions to change their lives.

The  New Year would start as the old year ended, with little to distinguish between the two. Perhaps that is why January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways. As doorways belong both inside and out, the New Year and New Year's Eve are just different sides of moments of lavishness, happiness, and festivity. Celebrations would drag on for about 5 days, until the 12th day of Christmastide, then the atmosphere changes abruptly. Employers start calling their employees, students return to their seats, and goal-setters chase their goals as they did the previous year. 

Will the new year be different from the previous year's terrors, wars, diseases, and disasters? The world will hold its breath, believing in new wishes and hoping they will come true. Yet, planes will fly over the Middle East bearing instruments of death, and drones and missiles will streak across Europe, a reminder that the new year is, in fact, only a symbolic gesture. Hope will persist, a constant presence actualized only in prayer. The Earth will continue on its lonely orbit, oblivious to the billions of people making lists of plans, and wishes for yet another year.

Abdulrahmon Quareeb