This turn of the year more than any other, I wondered why everyone made such a big deal out of it. Crowds gathered in places hours before the actual celebrations began, people lined up for parades, and a CNN article quoted a woman who said she "had to be there" once in her life, or something to that effect. I would be the last person to say that the highest meaning of everything is merely its materialistic parts, but honestly, the new year is an artificial construct on our calendars that marks each time the earth circles the sun. New Year resolutions are one thing--since the event has taken on a cultural significance of change and renewal, then I don't think anyone is overdoing it by making resolutions. It is arguable, however, that a resolution fit for inaugurating the new year is worthy to be made at any time of the year, and ought not be postponed until January 1st.
What does seem like overkill to me is the big events, the shooting of fireworks, the throwing of parties. Are people just looking for any excuse to throw a party? Are they trying to find significance in a day that doesn't celebrate any event of significance? Maybe I'm being a trifle cynical, but I found all the hoopla surrounding the new year rather shallow. Sure, it's 2008 now, not 2007, but so what? Midnight slipped by on December 31st, and there was no worldwide flash of light or tectonic tremor. This new year, which does not represent (as far as we know) exactly the anniversary of the earth's starting point around the sun when it was first created, only a random point on its orbit, will have whatever tenor and importance that we give to it. The fact that the new year came around may be fun, interesting, or whatever, but why do we shoot off fireworks as if it's the 4th of July? There's nothing wrong with that, but why? Am I just a stick-in-the-mud, or does this seem a little overblown? I'm happy to be proven wrong, if proof can be offered in a relatively subjective case.
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4 comments:
Wow, you're starting to sound kind of like me, here. :-D
I'm not sure quite where to begin here, because on the one hand I think you're right in principle, but on the other I think you've gone just a little too far.
Granted, to the secular world most holidays, particularly Christmas and New Year's, are celebrations of their own celebration. I couldn't agree more that people make a somewhat bigger deal out of it than is perhaps necessary (particularly the fireworks, which are used on so many occasions that their original significance is increasingly obscured). I'm also willing to agree that people make a big deal just for the fun of making a big deal.
However, I don't see where you get your "so what" attitude concerning the new year. First of all, it's a pretty natural impulse to celebrate the coming of a new year. Think back to the first time that you read LotR. Weren't you somewhat excited when you finished have finished The Fellowship of the Ring and did you not also begin The Two Towers with more eagerness than you would have if it's first chapter had been just another chapter of the first part--even though the division of the novel into three parts was an imposition of the publishers almost as arbitrary as our assigning of January 1st? If not, then my argument falls flat, but if so, then you can understand that the impulse to celebrate the new year stems from the same natural feeling applied on a somewhat larger scale.
Secondly, and more importantly, whereas the secularists really do not have a logical reason to consider a new year worthy of celebration, as Christians we have every reason to. Sure, the new year is just marking the Earth's completion of yet another orbit around the sun, of which it has already made several thousand. But is that really a small thing? To us the beginning of a new year ought to be a time to recall God's faithfulness in sustaining His universe as He has promised, to celebrate the rebirth and resurrection of life that each year brings, and what it signifies. Isn't that why we celebrate our birthdays? It may not be a good excuse for raucous, public parties and revelry, but I don't think its something that ought to be downplayed either.
My $0.02, for what they’re worth.
Connor and I talked about this a bit on a walk, and I agree somewhat with both of you. On the one hand, I think most people look upon the new year celebrations as just another occasion to party and set off fireworks.
On the other hand, I do understand the "newness" factor, and certanily agree with what David said about Christians. BUT, it seems to me that we should be celebrating not just a new year (arbitrary as the date is), but every day because His mercies are new every morning.
I'd be more inclined to recall God's faithfulness around spring, with all the new life springing forth (not to mention the celebration of the Resurrection), than in the middle of a bleak winter! But then again, we should be recalling God's faithfulness all the time.
I think Mom is right about the Spring thing in principle; I also think that the calender kicks off near, but slightly after, the Winter solstice because it is, so to speak, all "downhill" after that until next winter. The celebrations both of the inauguration of a new year and of Christ's birth are *more* special because we jubilate and are still in the midst of frosts and hardship. It's a very powerful expression of hope.
Of course, getting wasted at a nightclub and shooting off fireworks isn't much of a powerful expression of hope, but this doesn't depreciate the holiday, any more than inflatable plastic santas depreciate Christmas.
Thanks, you three! Your comments gave me some good things to think about. I think I agree with elements of all of them. I find it sad that so many unsaved people without any future hope hail the new year as something worth celebrating. From their perspective, it's just a year closer to death and another pile of largely unkept resolutions. For the Christian, who of course has much to hope for, if New Year's Eve reinforces that hope or incites contemplation about it, that's wonderful. I guess for me those reminders just hit me more powerfully on Sundays, Advent, Christmas, Resurrection Day, and the like.
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