It's that time of year again and I'm wondering where the time flew to. Ready or not here comes 2010. So much has gone on in the family that I can't believe it all got packed into one short year.
Someone at worked asked how we celebrate New Years Eve. Really simply, as it turns out. Comfy in a robe and slippers, sipping a toasty cappuccino. Yes, counting noses and being joyful that all noses are present and accounted for, and not sniffling. And at midnight I'll do what I've done every year since I'm married--I'll call my mom and wish her a happy new year, as she will do for me. And then I can go to sleep happily, knowing that all the important people are heading into that new year with me.
Whatever you need or want, I hope the new year will bring it for you. I hope that next year at this time you will be able to look back on 2010 as having been a good year, a fulfilling year. I hope that this year will be one of peace, both personally and globally. I hope this new year will be one of progress, again both personally and globally. Let this be a year that "mazel tovs" ring out loudly and frequently. I'm really looking forward to getting lots of blisters from my dancing shoes from all the simchas that are going to take place. Let this be a year in which refuahs and yeshuahs come in abundance. Let this be a year in which impossible dreams come true by the hundreds. Let this year be whatever you need it to be.
Happy New Year!
NOTE: To any commenter who is considering leaving a comment about how frum Jews should not be involved in celebrating the secular new year or even giving greetings of happy new year, because secular new years is all about the drinking, may I advise that you don't leave that comment, or my pre-Purim rant on alcohol is quite likely to come far earlier in the Jewish calendar than Adar.
15 comments:
Happy new year to you too. I think many frummies don't like acknowledging the new year for reasons in addition to the way some people celebrate. They simply can't acknowledge any holiday that is not a jewish holiday. I have been receiving email appeals for year-end donations that only refer to the close of the "tax year" and not saying anything about wishing a happy new year or acknowledging that December 31 is the end of a tax year.
nothing to do with alcohol.
It's just not our happy new year. It just isn't.
Our new year started about 4 months ago.
We happen to celebrate the new year according to the Jewish calendar, not the Christian one.
Keels: I think the more occassions to celebrate and/or contact families and friends to wish them well (and to get out of work early)the better. We are Americans so secular holidays are "ours" too.
I didn't say go to work on Sundays.
I said don't say "Good(Christian)Shabbos".
Calling the calendar Christian at this point in time is useless. Doesn't matter who originally decided on the names and dates, it's the calendar that organizes people and businesses around the world, no matter what other calendar they use for their personal lives or religious observance. We're Americans too and for Americans a new year begins tomorrow. Not a religious new year, a secular one.
Happy new years!
Would love to see someone try to collect social security based on their hebrew birthday. It's a government calendar not a christian religious one. Anyone who writes checks or pays bills according to the Jewish calendar?
We don't live in a vacuum.
I've read that the names of the months on the hebrew calander have their origins in babylonian, sumerian and canaanite names for the months. Any truth to that?
Good reason to be happy that your landlord, if he's Jewish, is using the secular calendar and not the Jewish one--years where we have two Adars. If the Jewish calendar organized daily life for rent collection you'd be paying an extra months rent for the second Adar.
Can't believe we're arguing about whether a new year really starts or not tomorrow--it does. Great for us--two chances to wish people well in the upcoming year. So have a happy new year all.
If we're going to be accurate the Mishnah tells us that we have four different new years in the Jewish calendar. Those have religious importance. Jan. 1 starts a new calendar year but has no religious significance. No big deal to say happy new year to someone today or tomorrow since it isn't a religious greeting.
"'ve read that the names of the months on the hebrew calander have their origins in babylonian, sumerian and canaanite names for the months. Any truth to that?"
Very much so. Look at the Babylonian Calendar names and you'll recognize the overwhelming majority. The only one missing is Cheshvan, which has its own interesting etymological history.
Anyone who takes issue with New Year's should also take issue with many of our weekday names (Wednesday = Wotan (Odin)'s day, Thursday = Thor's day).
Finally, of course, if the solar calendar is Christian, why do we use it outside of Israel to determine when we start saying v'ten tal u'mattar?
Thought I'd throw this into the mix. Lots of people who object to saying "happy new year" for Jan. 1 because we say it for Rosh Hashanah. Here's the thing: we borrowed that "happy new year" from the secular greeting. Our greeting for Rosh Hashanah is "L'shana tovah" or "L'shana tovah u'mesucah" or "L'shana tovah tikosavu." Our new year's greetings don't have a happiness element to them--good maybe, or sweet. The closest we come to a greeting about happiness is for those who will say "have a freilachen Purim."
So there really is no reason to be up in arms about saying happy New Year now because it is most definitely not tied up or originating from any Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashana.
Much ado about nothing here. No religious significance to new years and no reason not to wish someone a happy new year. It's a way of marking time, a time we all live under and use in our everyday lives.
Isn't there something more important to frumkeit then saying happy new year that we should be busy with?
What lovely worded blessings for the coming 12 months :D (see how diplomatically I avoided becoming mired in any controversy ;) )....
And for those in an area with a large Chinese population, the Chinese New Year is coming up in a few weeks as well.
And Japanese New Years, there is a celebration down here at a local Japanese Garden (whose sponsors are like 80% Jewish, and plenty of Kippah wearing Jews were touring and enjoying last year.
The cultural ignorance is astounding, the January 1st New Years isn't Christian at all, it's Roman (January is derived from Janus)... the early Church placed the Feast of the Circumcision ON January 1st to coopt the Roman holiday, then counted back a week to put Christmas close enough to the solstice to subsume that holiday and the entire Yule with it.
Best wishes to all in 2010.
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