A Wide Range of New Year’s Celebrations

I don’t think it matters so much how we celebrate the new year, just as long as we pause and reflect, in case we need to make some course corrections. And as long as we celebrate the symbolic new opportunity that a new year brings.

As an only child in a family with a relatively small social circle, New Year’s was never a big hullabaloo when I was growing up. In my late teens, I was a scout and part of a group that wanted things to be more rugged. We hijacked the American name, Explorers,and dressed in green overalls with an emblem painted on the back, and one of the things we did was celebrate New Year’s by hiking in the woods in the snow regardless of the temperature. We had army tents, very similar to the one in this picture and there was a little stove in there, but of course you still needed the most expensive sleeping bag you could buy in those days. I still have mine. When I have had to sleep in the horse barn on cold winter nights, I have resorted to using that, I still have mine, bought in 1970. Pretty amazing durability.

Fast forward to the 2000’s, black tie, multi-course dinners with dancing at Chateau Frontenac in Quebec several years in a row, and now home cooked Swedish holiday meals with children, grandchildren and girlfriend right here in Caribou, Maine. We cook together and eat the traditional Swedish holiday foods and we may play some silly games. Then we melt soldering “lead” and pour it into cold water and analyze the shapes created, which are supposed to foretell the next year’s biggest events.

All three ways to celebrate are good, there is a time and a place for everything.

So, if you’re reading this, thanks for joining me on Substack, where I started posting about 9 months ago, and where I have found a bigger and steadier readership than I had on Wordpress.

Happy new Year!