Seeing out the Old Year

Why do we need New Year’s Eve? Or rather why do we have to party so hard that New Year’s Day is short, miasmic, a hungover non event?

It can feel overlong, that carefully organised party with too much booze that has to run til midnight. Not to play Scrooge but couldn’t we all just go to bed as usual and wake up refreshed and genuinely ready to welcome a New Year in?

Because before that we have to usher the Old Year out. We are celebrating our survival of the darkness.  In these moments we say goodbye to all that ails us, the deaths and illnesses, loneliness and departures. We forgive those that trespassed and our own petty and larger sins. We look for comfort in food and drink and each other, in one long night of the soul. For who knows how and who we will be next year and who will still survive and who be gone?

Celebrate being alive and loved and at home on a cold night.

Eat a little, drink a little and love a lot.  For tomorrow, we cleanse.

HAPPY 2015 – May you and your loved ones be healthy and hearty, and may the good things you want find you easily and keep you company throughout the year.

 

Emma x