nourishing obscurity

С празднечкам вас всех!! C Новым Счастьем! Тут можно поздравлять и дарить подарки. С наступающим новым годом! Здоровья и удачи всем!

OK, that’s that done.  Now, if you’re still with me and haven’t zipped off to your frivolities, you might just be like yours truly – not entirely enamoured of NYE.   Some years ago, a lady named Cora wrote about why she doesn’t like it and gave her reasons as:

I hate New Year’s Night. Yes, I do. New Year is the one holiday I could really do without.  First of all, new year is very badly timed. I’m just not in the mood for another holiday so soon after Christmas.  Secondly, New Year’s Night generally means big parties with lots of dancing and drinking which simply isn’t my preferred mode of celebrating anything.

Thirdly, I’m not even sure that a new year really is a reason to celebrate. For what does New Year really mean? Just a few numbers changing on a calendar, that’s all.  Finally, I have a very personal reason for not liking New Year. When I was a kid, my parents used to share a holiday house with another family and we’d always spend New Year at Teufelsmoor. I hated Teufelsmoor.

Stephen Pollard said he hated the enforced bonhomie and the congas. Stephen wrote of saying “hate” eight times in one paragraph.   I wouldn’t say I exactly hate it but I’d certainly avoid it if I could, just as I’d avoid commercial Christmas.  Many do hate New Year though and reading some of these, they appear to be due to some experience or other.

In Russia, it’s far worse than in the non-Scottish west because it’s the big one, the one where all the presents take months to buy, the decorations, the table, the food, the whole kaboodle and they finish work, as a rule, about December 28th with that last minute closing off and writing off.

That has to be the worst timing for a holiday and predictably, in many households, it gets nasty.  The overbearing host forcing vodka on everyone, the dire TV with the countdown, the raucous shouting – perhaps I’ve said enough.  I mean, let’s not ban it – people can celebrate what they want but for me, the perfect Holiday is Orthodox Christmas.

On January 7th, all the end of year angst is over, the snow lies deep and crisp and even, the weather is usually soft and good, grandparents have a small do with just an ordinary meal and a little wine – it’s lovely.  Back home after that with very little traffic and available taxis and one can say one’s celebrated nicely.

We’re strange, aren’t we, how we love some things and hate others.  The feeling I get is that for many, it is a depressing time at New Year, perhaps a reckoning of the past year and how we did, perhaps a revulsion at the shallowness of it.  Certainly, for me, there have been some shockers, usually involving a gf and if she also hates it … w-e-e-e-e-l-l!

There’ve been some great ones too.  I recall two years where there was just her and me, starting New Year’s Eve and going through to the 2nd.  Now that was really something – that’s my idea of the way to go.  Those two NYsEs would have to rate up near the top.

This evening, I’m casting an eye in the direction of NYE 2010 and if you’ve been following this blog, you’ll understand that next year, at this time, we could all be in a completely different situation.  Taking my personal circumstances all up, I’d say it’s almost odds on that it will be radically different.

For the faithful, I’d just say, “Pray,” and for all the others, try not to dwell too much on either NYE or next year.

Happy New Year.

Filed under: Society & human issues