by Annette Bromley

Created on: December 28, 2010

THE NEW YEAR AND THE TRADITIONS BEHIND OUR CELEBRATIONS

The New Year, for many of us it is a time of celebrating, of parties with family and friends.  It is a new chance to start over and maybe get it right this time and we all look forward to a better year but despite all our resolve and trying we will still probably make a few mistakes and fall off the wagon when it comes to keeping all those New Year’s Resolutions.  Making them is a tradition but for most of us it is wasted effort and our resolve doesn't usually last more than a couple weeks or a month, if that.

One of the most popular traditions in welcoming the New Year is the tradition of the New Year’s resolution, resolving to do something to improve our being and our life in the coming year.  Most of us have forgotten what those resolutions even were by the end of March if we haven’t already forgotten them by the morning after but we do it anyhow, resolve for better or worse.  It’s tradition.  It all began in ancient times in the days of Babylon when people would resolve to return items, namely farming equipment they had borrowed during the previous year and all grudges and debt were quickly forgiven.  A good way to start the year is it not?  Maybe that is where the tradition in many societies of being debt free by the New Year comes from.

There are lots of sayings, superstitions regarding the New Year:  An empty cupboard is supposed to be a sign of poverty and hardship in the year ahead.  I once had a neighbor who was so superstitious regarding this that she would go around on December 31 and make certain that there was at least one or two items on every shelf and in every cupboard of her house.  I don’t think she ever really went hungry or went without anything she needed but neither do I really believe her being sure there was at least something on every shelf and in every cupboard had a thing to do with it but she believed it.  She also believed in doughnuts and I’ll explain the doughnut in a little bit.  It is another superstition but there are those folks who truly believe in it and doughnuts become very much a part of their New Year celebration.

Most of our traditions, the ways we welcome the New Year are traditions that have been handed down through the ages, our cultural heritage, the same traditions and habits that have been handed down from generation to generation.  That is the

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