Another New Year
‘The Old Year has struck, /And,
scarce animate, /The New makes moan,’ wrote Thomas Hardy as a war-torn Europe
slipped from 1915 to 1916. Today the moans of victims of a new war have made
some nations cancel new year celebrations, while others drown them out in noisy
celebrations, and spectacular fireworks replace the flash of rockets and bombs
in the night sky.
New year celebrations were once,
and in many countries still are, a celebration of the seasons, of great
importance to agrarian communities. For the Egyptians it marked the flooding of
the Nile which brought the promise of fertile soil. Spring, the time of new
growth and planting of new crops, has been the most common time to celebrate a
new year. In medieval Europe this tradition was given a religious significance
and the new year began on March 25th as the time the Angel Gabriel
announced to Mary the impending birth of Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church
adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 and restored January 1st as
the new year, although Britain and America did not adopt this till 1752.
The Roman Calendar created by
Romulus, was made more accurate by Julius Caesar in 46 BC named after him as
the Julian calendar. He made January 1st
the beginning of the new year, named after the two-faced god Janus – one face
looking back to the past and the other to the future. The Gregorian Calendar,
now followed across the world, removed 11 days from September for greater
accuracy.
Nawroz, is celebrated across the
Persian influenced world, with haft mewa and the flowering of the tulip,
Guli Surkh, reflecting the Zorastrian traditional new year where haft
seen are seven objects beginning with the letter seen that bless the new
year symbolizing sweetness and fertility, wealth and prosperity, rebirth, life
and beauty, health, love, age and patience.
The Arab world does not have any
festival to mark the new year, perhaps because it was not an agrarian
economy. The first month in Pre-Islamic
Arabia was Mu’tamir ( the wealthy one) which was changed in the Islamic
calendar to Muharram (that which must be respected). Years were remembered
because of events, such as the Year of the Elephant. The first ten years of the
Hijrah, the Islamic calendar were known as the year of permission, the year of
the order of fighting, the year of the trial, the year of congratulation on
marriage, the year of the earthquake, the year of enquiring, the year of
gaining victory, the year of equality, the year of exemption, the year of
farewell, until the numerical hijrah calendar was introduced. Closer to the
idea of marking a new year is Shab e Bar’aat ( or day of atonement) to pray for
those who have died, and when some believe the destinies for the coming year
are determined by the deeds they committed in the past year. Similar concepts
are the Christian All Souls Day, the Japanese Bon festival, the Hungry Ghost
festival of China, the Pitru Paksha of Hinduism.
Spanish Blogger Zoerith, says as
the English language spread across the world, so too have the culture and
customs associated with it via colonialism, the Industrial revolution, the
computer revolution of America, advertising, broadcasting, cinema, and pop
music. Countries all over the world now
celebrate the new year in a uniform hedonism – fireworks, singing Auld Lang
Syne, making new year resolutions, and seeking astrological predictions for the
coming year. It has lost its spiritual roots.
For those who do not have much to
celebrate, it can be a time of anxiety as they think of the end of a year of
struggle, and uncertainty about the coming year. The feeling has even earned
itself a name: seasonal affective disorder (SAD) manifesting as isolation and
loneliness, financial stress, work anxiety, unmanageable expectations or
worries about one’s loved ones. It is clearly compounded with the current
climate of political uncertainty and the fear of global conflict emerging from
the unrelenting Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The poet, T.S.Eliot, always mindful
of the sombre reality of modern life, voices our collective hope:
'For last year's words belong to
last year's language/ And next year's words await another voice./
And to make an end is to make a
beginning.'
Durriya Kazi
December 29, 2023
Karachi
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