New Year: How we learned to celebrate beginnings

Every year, when midnight strikes, we celebrate something that doesn't really exist - an imaginary line between two days. And yet, at that moment, we feel something change. Why?

Imagine living in ancient Egypt. Your new year doesn't begin on January 1st, but with the arrival of the Nile floods—when the star Sirius appears in the sky. That made sense. Water brought the harvest, the harvest meant life. The beginning was visible, tangible.

The Babylonians celebrated the New Year in spring, when nature awakened. The ancient Slavs began the year on December 25, at the time of the winter solstice – when light slowly returned to the world.

Every culture sought its own beginning. And isn't that interesting? It's like one needs to believe in the possibility of starting over.

Julius Caesar was a pragmatist. When he reformed the Roman calendar, he set the beginning of the year at January 1st – a day dedicated to the god Janus, guardian of gates and beginnings. A god with two faces – one looking back, the other forward. Beautiful symbolism, isn’t it?

However, the medieval church banned these celebrations as pagan. The Council of Tours in 567 decided: no New Year's on January 1. But what a person needs, he will eventually find. The tradition survived beneath the surface.

In the Czech lands, New Year's Day officially took hold on January 1st only in the 16th century, due to the influence of Roman law and the printing of calendars. Before that, we celebrated the "Christmas dating system" - New Year's Day fell on December 25th.

It's interesting that we still associate them together - Christmas and New Year. As if those few days between them were a space outside of time.

If we take it rationally, nothing happens. Midnight on December 31st is the same as any other midnight. The calendar is just a human invention, a way to organize time.

And yet… In that moment, we feel something real. Possibility. Hope. The opportunity to start over, even though we know that in the morning we will be the same people as the day before.

Maybe that's why New Year's traditions are so important. They're not about magic—they're about our need to believe that things can change.

Let's look at Czech traditions with the eyes of understanding:

– and it wasn't just a children's pastime. Priests, municipal servants, and chimney sweeps, for example, came for alms, a small amount of money, and a shot of alcohol. Housewives would scatter peas around the room so that no one would get lost in the New Year.

It was important who came to visit first on New Year's Day: an old woman meant quarrels, a young man or girl meant happiness, and a child meant love.

Eating legumes is supposed to bring wealth. Why? Because the tiny grains resemble coins. Is that naive? Maybe. But it's a beautiful example. symbolic thinking – when we eat something that looks like wealth, we attract wealth to ourselves.

So that happiness doesn't "fly away." This is even more interesting - it points to an ancient fear of loss. As if we believe that happiness is something fragile that can escape us at any time.

On the first day of the year, you shouldn't clean. Why? So that we don't sweep luck out of the house. But maybe there's another truth to it – need for rest. A day when we don't have to do anything, when we can just be.

Every nation celebrates the New Year a little differently, and this says something about what they consider important:

The Spaniards and their 12 grapes they show a love of rituals and precision.
Danes breaking plates in front of friends' houses – the more shards, the more friends – a beautiful metaphor for connection.
Brazilians jumping over seven waves with wishes with every jump – trust in the power of nature and repetition.
Japanese with 108 bell strikes – each blow washes away one earthly sin. The idea of purification, a new beginning.

What does this say about us as humanity? That we are all looking for the same thing – hope, happiness, connection. We just use different symbols.

„"A hen's step into the New Year" - the light is extended only slightly.
„"Dark New Year - Great White Night" - an attempt to predict the weather.

• Both on New Year's and all year round.
• A hen's step on New Year's Eve, a step further on Epiphany, an hour more on Groundhog Day.
• When the year begins with winter and snow, it promises plenty of bread but little wine.
• Mud on New Year's, snow on Easter.
• January cold, April green.
• If it is nice on New Year's morning, the weather will be favorable for the harvest in the region.
• New Year's Eve will be clear and calm, and the weather will be favorable for the harvest.
• When the thunder rolls in January, An abundance of wine is in anticipation. 

Our ancestors observed nature and looked for patterns in it. Today we know that these pranostics do not always work. But the effort to understand the world around us – that remains the same.

I wondered why New Year's celebrations have persisted for thousands of years, despite all the changes in cultures and religions.

It's not a magical moment when everything changes. It's a moment when we allow ourselves to believe that it can change. And that faith – whatever it is based on – has its own power.

Maybe that's why we keep traditions, even if we consider them superstitions. Because in that ritual - in that eating lentils, in that jumping into the new year, in that wishing „"Happy New Year"“ – the millennial human desire for a better tomorrow is encoded.

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So when you raise your glass at midnight next year, remember: it's not just you. It's all the people before you who celebrated their beginnings like this. And that's actually pretty magical, don't you think? ✨

„"The future belongs to those who believe in their beautiful dreams."“ Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady of the United States

„"Everything seems impossible until you do it."“ Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) former president of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

„"It's never too late to start being who you could have been."“ George Eliot (1819–1880) English writer, journalist and translator

„"Our destiny is not written in the stars, but within ourselves."“ William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English poet and playwright

 „"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year."“ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

„"Life begins where your comfort zone ends."“ Neale Donald Walsch (born 1943), American writer

„"With each new day comes new strength and new thoughts."“ Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady of the United States

„"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."“ Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-American physicist, author of the theory of relativity

 „"Give your best, because that's all you are."“ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

 „"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."“ Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962)

„"You are never too old to set a new goal or start dreaming a new dream."“ Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) British writer of Irish descent

Which religion is the oldest? Faiths without a halo!