Echo Beach

        New Years Day is Arbitrary. It doesn't start at the Winter Solstice, rather New Years Day is 11 days later. There is no physical event on January 1st that would warrant a designation of a New Year. In fact colonial America celebrated New Years Day on March 25. They only changed it to January 1st when they adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752.
        Just a side note here; The actual length of a year is 365.2422 days. The Julian Calendar had it at 365.25 days. After almost 1600 years the Julian calendar was, shall we say, just a little off. Pope Gregory XIII made a correction to the Julian calendar in 1582 by cutting ten days out of October. October 4th, 1582 was followed by October 15th. Almost 200 years later England and her colonies made the switch to the Gregorian calendar. By this time they were out of step with most of Europe by eleven days. The Julian calendar was off an additional day. In the American Colonies, September 2,1752 was followed by September 14, 1752. Let's put that into perspective; that was only 24 years before the American Revolution. The calendar seems a little less concrete now that I know it was played with during the age of reason.
        As I said, New Years Day is arbitrary, a day in the calendar that has been randomly selected as the first day. Blame it on Julius Caesar. He's the one who set it. Yet the impact of a "New Year", a new beginning, makes us think of a fresh start, a clean slate. This is the time for New Years Resolutions, or promises to effect changes in our personal lives. It's easier at the New Year because everything that went before doesn't count. It's irrelevant because that was then. It's a New Year now, so we all must be different people.
        There's a Japanese tradition I like to observe, that says 'don't bring any debt or dirt into the New Year'. Okay, I blew that one right after the clock struck midnight. Fine. There is a Chinese tradition that says 'throw out everything and start fresh'. I like that one. I do run into a few snags though. I'll need to keep the old exercise machine, the one that I bought for an old New Years resolution back in 1990. I haven't used it in 5 years. After extended use its not friendly to the male anatomy, but its black and sleek and looks real cool sitting there in the garage with all the broken lamps I resolved to fix and the old furniture I resolved to restore.
        Resolutions are great! It doesn't matter how many times you make them or break them. You made and broke them back in that old year, the one that's gone and doesn't count any more. It all doesn't count! It's a New Year now, a clean slate, and you're free to make and break those resolutions again. It's a brand new Resolution Recycling season!
        We need this New Year. Since early October many of us have been tackling the holidays with gusto. For Halloween we put out pumpkins and lights and candles. We cover our porches with straw and watch the fall storms blow it about. For Thanksgiving we cooked and cleaned and celebrated. We visited family and friends. We decorated with ceramic turkeys and cornices full of gourds and vegetables. And even before Thanksgiving was over we were looking towards Christmas, the penultimate of frantic holidays, fraught with lights to hang, trees to decorate, presents to buy and parties to attend. Just think of how frantic it was for holiday shoppers back in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII made ten shopping days vanish with a wave of his holy ring.
        New Years Eve is sort of a finish line for the holidays. We don't have to buy anything but cheese, crackers and meat. The leftover Christmas decorations are still up. They will do nicely for the New Year, so we don't need to decorate. All we need to do is watch the clock and scream like idiots when the arbitrary 12:00 midnight comes around.
          Just another side note here; Midnight was arbitrarily set by railroad barons in the late 1800's. They wanted to make sure all their trains were on time, and they did this by controlling all the clocks that they were using in the first place. Control time and you'll have no problems with schedules at all.
        So now we've crossed the finish line. We've scrambled happily through the holidays, and we've started putting away the decorations. They should all be down by Valentines Day. The outdoor lights may be a problem. The rains may keep us off the roof until the 4th of July, so just don't turn on the porch light and we'll be fine. The corners where the trees were have all been vacuumed and the furniture restored to their proper locations. The cats fur has settled back into place. All the colors that filled the darkness are gone.
        Now there is a freshness to the world, a newness. The days are getting longer. Trees have a purple hue to them, and tiny purple buds. Crocuses will be pushing up through the dirt in no time. All we need to do now is relax and watch the New Year unfold. Oh, and there are those resolutions we'll need to attend to. But what the heck, it's a New Year after all. We've got time. Pope Gregory XIII owes us a few days.