I have never understood why people make a big deal out of the arrival of a new year.
It’s not a grumpy old fart thing. I’ve just never seen the significance of celebrating the arrival of another new day. It happens every 24 hours. But once each year it happens and people go crazy drinking and hugging and kissing each other and often total strangers. I have nothing against drinking or hugging and kissing. It’s the occasion that stumps me.
Some people suggest New Year’s Eve is just an excuse for a party.
Maybe, but I think there’s something deeper going on here, something meaningful. Mortality, perhaps? I want to understand, to “get it.” So, today I began looking into the holiday and I started by researching the song that defines the event and the spirit:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup o’kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
That’s the first of several verses and choruses of the original poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. Literally translated, the Scottish “auld lang syne” means “old long since,” but in context, “For auld lang syne” is loosely translated to mean, “for the sake of old times.”
The little light bulb has just gone on over my cartoon head!
New Year’s Eve isn’t really about the arrival of a new year, it’s about the passing of the old year!
(Oh, puh-leeze, cut me a little slack. I’m often late to arrive at an obvious conclusion. Especially when people say the opposite of what they mean!)
It’s not about the arriving future, it’s about the departing past? Well, Hell’s bells, then why don’t we make it about that and have an evening of nostalgia and reminiscence? Why don’t we just haul out photo albums and tell each other great stories from our personal pasts? Why all the expense, the travel, the fancy meals and too much booze? Why do we insist on making New Year’s Eve a big deal?
Maybe they’re right. Maybe it really is just an excuse for a party and kissing total strangers.
Still, in the words of Robert Burns:
We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.
How can you argue with that?
I’m a fan of ritual and marking special events – even inventing special occasions to celebrate – so New Year’s Eve is fine with me the way it is. However, the way it is these days is that I spend it with Anderson Cooper on CNN, watching the Times Square ball drop at 9 P.M. California time. See? I’m flexible enough to modify that midnight thing.
New Year’s Eve with … Anderson Cooper? Well, OK. I guess it beats spending the evening with Chris Matthews. But then I’m a little more from the old school.
As you glide ‘n slide through the crowds, horns and people makin’ happy noises while enjoying the dawn of bringing in a brand New Year – I’d prefer spending the time with (during his best days) good ol’ Dick Clark.
It ain’t really been the same … since.
Then again, a few ol’ die hards probably muttered the same thing when Lombardo’s Gang was relegated to The Senior’s Only Ballroom. I guess “time” makes it so.
Having said that …
If NPR ever assigns Nina Totenberg to host that legendary celebration – I just may become one of them grumpy ol’ men, too.
Till then, I’ll be dialin’ in “Kid” Seacrest for a few minutes tomorrow night.
Happy New Year, guys. See ‘ya next year. TOOOOOT! : – )
I can’t argue with it. heck, I can’t even understand it!
Your post prompted me to reflect on everything that I deemed important to me in 2010. The year started out like it has for the last 26 years at midnight with a kiss for my wife and a Happy Anniversary wish. Yes, we were married on January 1st. However, 2010 was special as we renewed our wedding vows and celebrated our 25th Annniversary with our close friends and family. A milestone to say the least. A few months later I flew to Nashville to move my daughter 3 hours North to Lexington, Kentucky so she could start her job with one of the oldest colleges in the nation. Thankful she lived next door to one of the Tennessee Titan footbal players who managed to carry all of the heavy stuff to the truck for this old man.
2 months later our youngest daughter graduated from Northern Michigan and it’s another 3 hour drive for Mom and Dad; this time we were accompanied by my 82 year old father and 78 year old mother. Can’t say that was the trip of a lifetime ,but looking back and now knowing what was to come a few months later, it was well worth the time and effort. A week later we moved that same daughter home for the summer and then it’s back to Lexington for the other daughter who graduated with her masters from Vanderbilt resulting in another trip to Nashville for the ceremony. Oh did I mention just prior to that we took our bathroom down to the studs for a complete remodel that took over 3 weeks to complete? With just barely enough vacation left, it’s on to Chapel Hill, NC so our youngest daughter can pursue her passion for animals and enroll in veterinary school. Another week and we’re back home for the family “50’s” party. My parents had 6 kids; all of us were in our 50’s until my sister turned 60 the end of August. My dad had the time of his life because it was the 1st time all of us were together again since the early 1990’s. Unfortunately, Dad passed away in September and the 50’s party had a new meaning for all of us. So life goes on with our Chapel Hill daughter getting engaged just before Christmas and my colonoscopy results stating I don’t need to have that procedure repeated again for 5 years. It will be hard for 2011 to top the year I had but at least it started like it has for the last 26 years with a kiss for my wife and a loving “Happy Anniversary”.