Happy New Year?
Let’s just start by saying Happy new year to all!
This year I wish you find
Boldness rooted in wisdom
An unapologetic self grounded in compassion
The courage to set your own pace
Yourself stepping into your own power
An expansion of love, beauty and fullness
I spent this holiday nearly exactly as I wanted after many years feeling like I am going against the grain. Nearly because families... But even with that tiny blip, I had a break full of ease, presence, fun and rest! It truly felt like a deep reset of my nervous system. And I stayed true to my deepest desires.
Deeply grateful to myself that I kept going all these years regardless of the feedback around me. The journey to self liberation takes time and perseverance.
As long as you stay connected to your inner compass and keep going, the work you put in will be valued and recognised and you will be able to taste its fruits!
Now you know how much I advocate doing it your own way. So however you feel like celebrating new year, I would only want to celebrate it with you!
But what’s interesting is that one morning last week I woke up thinking why the months September – October – November – December are named after the numbers 7 – 8 – 9 – 10.
What’s more interesting is that the last few years I have been feeling that the new year extravaganza, is so misplaced. It feels like we should shuffle it a couple of months later. When spring is here and everything does feel naturally celebratory!
So I just looked it up and here is what I found…
New year used to be celebrated differently by different groups of people, depending on the culture, the place, beliefs and later on religion. What we now see as a nearly global new year, is a relatively new phenomenon and is the result of the Gregorian calendar that we follow that was set back in the 1500s by Pope Gregory XIII in his effort to create a fixed calendar. This is when the leap year was introduced, so that Easter can fall around the same period without the need to reset the holiday. He also moved the new year to the 1st of January.
Still even then, many countries didn’t welcome the change. It was mainly Catholic ones that were more keen to adopt it. England for example did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. Russia as a Christian orthodox country didn’t switch to the Gregorian calendar until after 1917, but the Christian Orthodox church still uses the Roman calendar to set their year, and this is why we see a difference in the dates of the Catholic and Orthodox Easters.
The Gregorian calendar is largely based on its predecessor, the ancient Roman calendar and its later reform the Julian calendar, updated by Julius Caesar.
Back in roman days, the new year started in March! March was named after Mars the god of war when all military activity would resume. January and February did not even have any names as they were considered “dead” months. This is how it is explained that the months September – December are named after the numbers 7 – 10. Their calendar would only mark between March to December, 10 months in total. January and February as they were later named, would be months of winter and minimal activity, therefore quietude and peace.
January was named after the Roman god Janus, protector of gates usually depicted with two faces, one looking at the past and one to the future, symbolising this way a reflective period.
February was named after the Latin word “februa” that means to cleanse, to purify, and it would symbolise the preparation for the new year that is about to emerge. In this month there was also a festival of purification and atonement called Februalia.
In ancient Greece, the new year used to be on the first new moon after the summer solstice, which would fall any time between mid-July to mid-August. The 1st of the month was always marked with the new moon and they had chosen this time of the year as it was the longest day and the sun was at its brightest.
The Egyptians had initially a lunar calendar, until they realised that the star Canis major, also called Sirius, would appear next to the sun every 365 days. And this is when the first 365-day calendar seems to be recorded.
We also have the Babylonians, the Mayans, the Aztecs, all share the same principles following the Sun, the Moon and Stars with of course some differences.
What is really important to note is that all ancient calendars were based on the winter/summer solstices, the autumn/spring equinoxes, the moon cycles and the stars. They had quite some knowledge in astronomy!
This has also been observed in the orientation of ancient temples and how people used to rebuild them in order to fix the alignment as it was changing with time because of the tilt in the axis of the earth. This also correlates with the changes in the calendar that Pope Gregory XIII wanted to fix, so that Easter falls always around the same period. It wasn’t a mistake in the Julian calendar, it was the natural discrepancy occurred as the earth and stars move in a not so fixed way, yet always in natural cycles.
So, I mentioned in the beginning a NEARLY global celebration. Let’s see what happens around the world today…
We’ve got of course the most popular, the Chinese new year, interestingly based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The day of the new year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. It is a different day on the Gregorian calendar every year. Some Asian countries also follow the Chinese new year, such as Korea, Taiwan, Tibet and more.
In India, although the government has adopted the Gregorian calendar, there is a vast number of people that still celebrate ancient traditions based on the Hindu calendar called Panchanga.
Iran, based on Zoroastrian traditions, celebrates new year around the 21st March on the Spring equinox.
And that is just a few of them. The rabbit hole is bottomless…… Ha ha!!
This is only scratching the surface….
It is just an overview of what I came across in my search. There is a lot more if you want to dive into this topic.
We haven’t even looked at the history of the other hemisphere – but what I am thinking is that for them new year actually falls nearly the same way as ancient Greeks used to mark theirs, right after the summer solstice.
How interesting is that?
Another fun fact is that Romans used the calendar as a governmental tool to show their authority. It gave them status and power to have all the peasants following the dates as instructed by them. In later years and until the Gregorian calendar was more widely adopted, there have been such huge disparities in different parts of the world, as people feel the natural inclination to continue the traditions of their ancestors rather than follow a superimposed culture that doesn’t always feel in line with their local traditions. Really interesting to mention that royals and upper class societies didn’t always follow the calendar as instructed by their own governments, but followed their own traditions and protocols outside of what commoners would do.
And yet, in our modern western world we find ourselves following a global calendar, superimposed, regardless of differences between cultures, weather, traditions, beliefs, religions. Regardless of how our bodies feel if we allowed ourselves to tap into the energy of the seasons, if we listened with more attention.
I wonder why there isn’t more freedom on a localised level. I wonder how new, the western modern human is and how detached from ancestral knowledge, how disconnected from nature. A new modern human with amnesia.
I personally don’t feel like glitter and parties when winter is still here and my energy levels feel fairly low. I am in the mood for quiet reflection and very gentle activity. Anyway in the northern hemisphere it is still dark, which means our bodies are in need of rest, not smashing our 2023 goals.
Yet this is a very often occurrence in our modern lives. A misalignment of nature and society, that has as a result disconnecting us from our true nature – something I view as a mind-body disconnection and confusion a lot of the times. What we then tend to do is look outside of ourselves for ways to feel we belong, to feel connected. But when this doesn’t come from a conscious inner place, it can bring up inner conflict, as we may prioritise others as a result and override our own wishes and messages of our bodies.
So, as we continue to flatten our differences and squeeze ourselves in the same traditions, in the name of inclusivity and globalisation, we become more and more distant of our own nature calling within. And another paradox appears if we peel back the layers. In its depth we are excluding nature, our natural ways of being, we are excluding our own soul, our own self, our own voice.
We are deepening the dissatisfaction, as we have forgotten how to live with the cycles of nature. But we are nature, we are cyclical beings.
Let’s remember how to live in cycles again.
There is a sweet softness in that way of living, in the acceptance of the up and down.
The ebb and flow
The cycle of the moon
The earth orbiting around the sun every year
Winter and summer
Darkness and light
The flow of life
A wave
Trying to move against it all has made us weary, dissatisfied, disconnected, misaligned
There is comfort in following the masses
But there is such beauty in aligning within yourself
In following the seasons
In allowing the flow of life to move you forwards
In connecting back to self, to nature
Yes, there is a different kind of way of swimming upstream, going against the grain
as you forge your own way in a society that follows one norm
Uncomfortable for sure
But so liberating!
I really do wish you set your own pace in your life. Follow your own seasons, reinvent yourself as often as needed. Have permission to change the way you view and do life. Create your own rituals, make your own new year celebration if you want to.
And always question:
Who sets the standard?
With all my love,
Korina xx
Just a note: This is not an extensive research. This is just the overview of my search into the topic and my own personal take on it. Although I have taken the time to make sure what I am writing is correct, please do check on your own. I hope this makes you curious for more, so you can look it up for yourself.