A New Year's Ramble

 

The Armenian Float in the Tournament of Roses Parade
Photo by Nairy Ghoogasian

Happy New Year to one and all.  Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.

It is New Year’s Day but, honestly, today feels no different than yesterday, or the day before.  This is the most nonchalant and ambivalent I have felt about the transition from last year to the new year since I was an infant and ignorant and oblivious to the very concept of time.  Today?  It is just another day.  It is special that I have nothing really to do but write this bloggy bit and watch some college football.  It is the least New Yearsish I have ever felt in terms of it being a new start, rebirth, and that sort of thing.

It is not like I am depressed.  I love the New Year’s greetings I have gotten from folks in response to mine.  I love responding to greetings others have sent me.  I know it is now 2024 and the start of a new term is in just two weeks.  All that I get and taking in stride.

Sure, there is an annual cycle marked by the change of seasons.  It is more easily realized in parts of the world where the difference between summer and winter is more profound.  When it the year do acknowledge a transition from one year to the next?  Different cultures have different dates.  The world currently operates Gregorian calendar where year zero is the birth of Christ.  Instead of Anno Domini (AD), the year is denoted by Common Era (CE) e.g. 2024 CE. The new year is generally marked ten days after the winter solstice or the first day of Winter. 

There are many other calendars used throughout history.  Other than the Gregorian, three come to mind.  The Jewish calendar is begins on the 15^th of September, basically the autumnal equinox or the first day of Fall.  It is the year 5784.  Year zero on this calendar is the year of Creation according to the Bible.  2024 will be the year 4722 in the Chinese Calendar, which is lunar based, and celebration this year on February 10 which is between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox.  The year zero was when the calendar was created by the mythological Emperor Huangdi.  The Persian calendar marks the new year exactly on the vernal equinox, Nowruz, the first day of Spring.  It is originally rooted in the birth of Zoroaster but refined in 662 CE to mark the Prophet Mohammed’s migration to Medina.

So, an exact New Year’s Day is arbitrary.  There is no magic to it other than the calendars are roughly being solar or lunar based.  The year zero also varies from calendar to calendar with most having some religious significance.  So, I am not feeling too bad or too old by this New Year’s Day feeling like just any old day.

I am certainly observing some New Year’s Day traditions.  We are watching the Tournament of Roses Parade.  I never really paid much attention to this parade until… there was an Armenian Float.  That was back in 2015 and we were there.  This year, our cousin Ani Hovannisian Kevorkian was one of the four riders on the float.  We were dutifully watching but they never showed the Armenian float which was #77 in the line-up.  It was a tad disappointing but social media provided both videos and photos.

In 2020, I wrote a New Year’s Day post:  The Dawn of a New Year and Decade.  It was one of top 15 read pieces.  I was feeling good when I wrote that post.  I was looking forward to the dawn of a new year and new decade.  Things changed in a short two months when in March of that year, we went in COVID isolation. 

That’s all for now.  The College Football Playoff featuring Michigan vs. Alabama in the Rose Bowl is about to begin.  I may write yet again today, depending on the outcome of this game.  Go Blue!!