Before Christmas I wrote a post about learning to love the festive season when it has become a difficult time. One of the things I later wished I had included was how helpful it can be to create new traditions. For all sorts of reasons, some of us find the traditional traditions, the things most people assume you have to do on special days, wearisome or even painful.
I have created some new, and perhaps unconventional, habits and rituals to make my Christmas more personal and more enjoyable, and will talk more about those next year!
Right now, however, it seems to be the perfect time to talk about New Year traditions. There is less pressure to do what everyone else is doing at New Year, and there is more choice and variety. We can go to parties, have people round to our homes, go out somewhere and watch fireworks, or even go to bed. Personally, I have always found that last option impossible as the end of the old year and beginning of the new one are just asking to be marked in some way. Many years ago, when I drank alcohol, I got up to all sorts of adventures at New Year, and usually spent 1st January feeling very sorry for myself indeed. Since then, I have spent some New Year’s Eves at swanky parties, some of them dressed up in silly costumes and some of them with family. Then, a couple of years ago, I spend the evening by myself for the first time. It wasn’t unpleasant at all. In fact it was quite nice.
So, this year, this is what I am up to. From about 10pm I will make sure I am at home. Although I have been invited to a party, I choose to stay in because half of our village gathers on the Square in front of the house to welcome in the New Year and Alfie gets very unsettled. He doesn’t mind the fireworks but he can’t understand why there are so very many people just outside the front door. I wouldn’t enjoy myself if I was away from home imagining him upset and anxious.
I will light a fire and play some music. I’ll meditate and probably write a little about the things I want to leave behind in 2013 and my hopes for 2014. Alfie and I will watch the fireworks through our front window. I won’t get to sleep till late because the revellers on the square will hang around for quite a while.
Then, tomorrow morning, I will wake up before dawn and Alfie and I will go out into the fields to watch the sun come up. This will be my third time welcoming in the new year like this and it’s one of my very favourite things to do. I am very likely to go back to bed afterwards but I will know I have made a positive start by witnessing the first daylight of the year.
If you are astronomically inclined, you will know that, for the first time in 19 years, we have a New Year and a new moon at the same time. I am sure that experts could tell me in detail what this means but I am happy to recognise that it feels like even more of a new beginning and a chance to start afresh.
I have to say that I bear no resentment towards 2013, even though it has been an extremely challenging year for me. I wrote a list of the main events of the year and it’s true that some of them were awful. There was a longer list, however, of wonderful things that happened and I was excited to realise that the majority of those resulted from things I had done, or just from me being me. I choose to focus on the wonderful things, and also to thank the awful events for the lessons I have learned and the strength I have gained through dealing with them.
I am looking forward to 2014 as there are many projects in the pipeline that I am excited to share with the world, and I know that more wonderful things will happen. And when challenges arise, as they are sure to do, I know from past experience that I will manage them well.
This is an invitation, of sorts, to my New Year’s Eve party. If you are delighted with your plans already, that’s fabulous. If not, why don’t you do as I have and create your own new traditions for this time of year? You can choose whatever you like (as long as it doesn’t harm you or anyone else) and you never know, you may discover a delightful new way of celebrating. Please share if you have a personal way of marking the change in the calendar or if you are planning something different this year.
And a very, very happy, peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year to you all! xxxxx
We’ll be with friends tonight, sharing a meal and seeing how we go as to whether we see the new year in at theirs or at home. I spent this afternoon writing a list of writing things to achieve…so that 2014 gets off to a more focussed start!
Wishing you all the best for your new year and new traditions x
That sounds a lovely plan and I like the built in flexibility! Very best new year wishes to you xx