Happy New Year

I know I am a couple of days later to wish everyone my best wishes for the new year, but it actually made me think about the change of digits and all the paraphernalia regarding the orbit made by our planet around the sun.

The first thing I can think about is that meme about a couple of aliens making fun of us humans for celebrating a complete revolution around our star as if it was something special. That joke as a point because in the end nothing changes enough, and most of all the date is more or less arbitrary. Other cultures do it too although not the same day of the year, but ours is supposed to be the correct and only one.

First and foremost I will talk about the occidental new year. Which ends on the 31st of December. I need to point this because I’ve already had issues about establishing when a week starts, is it Monday or Sunday? We’ll considering I come from a christian background I will say Monday since God supposedly rested on the seventh day which would be Sunday. So week starts as first working day, hence Monday. This said, let’s go back to the main topic of the post. New year and all that comes along.

The main thing about it are all the useless resolutions people take in the few days prior to the end of December as things they want to improve in their lifes or the ones they want to get rid of them, only to find out that by the Epiphany they have forgotten about them and they are back to what they used to do.

I know it comes from a good intention, we all do that, but to be honest, most of the time it just is only wishful thinking. In my personal case I will try to write more often in English since I’ve noticed more and more people have joined me in this blog journey and most of them are English-speaking. I like the idea and I already put it in motion some months ago so I don’t think it is like a real New Year Resolution.

Another thing that annoys me, and probably the one that does it the most, is all those people that NEVER talk to you or reach for you anywhere that suddenly send you messages to wish you the best. It starts for Xmas and keeps on during the first days of January. Out of the blue you get videos and various kinds of messages from people you forgot existed or even don’t have on your contact list anymore.

My parents used to say it was more some kind of polite way to behave in society. Even if you don’t care about those people, you still reach out for them for the holidays as you would for the birthdays. Which I understand, sometimes you don’t have more time than to do that. Although most of the times what you do not have is interest in being in touch with them. So why all the pretending? Seriously, if you forget about me all year long but do send me a message for Xmas or so, just f. off.

That reminds me of a case I know that is about to get his share of rudeness from me. This person only talks to me when he needs something from me, and has been silent for some months now. I know he will probably resurface soon and I am tired of it. I was expecting some fake holidays message from him, but up to this date I got nothing. The more time passes by the more the «just go fuck yourself» reply is on. This is linked to the previous paragraph: if you don’t even have the fake interest in this period of the year, it is obvious that I don’t matter even that little. Although we all know that when the time of need comes, those people will show up and behave as if I were the crazy one.

During the holidays you may have noticed the amount of dinners you had to attend that you would normally not go to. There is the infamous cena de Navidad del trabajo, which is basically the one you do with coworkers and most people want to avoid for obvious reasons. You have the gatherings with friends and family that sometimes you wish were swift and painless but where you have to deal with some individuals that will look out to make you feel uncomfortable and annoyed but you can’t avoid because it’s uncle whatever or your in-law that knows more about anything than the professionals on that matter. As time as gone by, in my family we are less and less people so fortunately, somehow, we don’t have to deal with those situations anymore. For others it is the other way around.

Also one funny thing regarding the NYE celebration is that you have to do something very fancy because it is the last night of the year. I can assure you, the day after will also have a night and you can also enjoy it. We didn’t do anything fancy. By half past ten we had finished dinner and were dosing on the settee in front of the TV with the dogs and cats keeping us warm. Some will say what a waste of time. I won’t. I have been to NYE parties, I’ve been out and about and I am very happy with my lame celebration. I don’t like drunk people and to be honest, it is what most of them do that night. I prefer safe to fun.

One last thing is the habit we have in Spain only to eat 12 grapes as the 12 gongs from the clock at midnight. I never got it why, apparently you have to make 12 wishes as you eat them, or choke on them, or else bad luck will come… I suppose the good luck is if you survive swallowing them without issues. We used to do it. Honestly I don’t know why since they don’t do it in Colombia and it is a very annoying thing to do. Try once and you’ll see what I mean. So obviously I stopped doing that as soon as I got out of my parents house, and even then they tried to make me join them in that fun tradition. Not for me thanks.

Some of you may have thought that the cranky old me would fade away and stop complaining during the holidays, well you don’t know me at all, obviously. The kind of fake stuff we are used to do just because it has always been like that will never stop to surprise me, and then make me write about it. Still not everything regarding this celebration is bad, I mean it may sound or look absurd but it doesn’t necessarily mean we are wrong in doing it.

We have to draw the line somewhere, like the international demarcation line that states where it is 2022 and where 2023 starts. That made a couple of funny events, like a flight departing Seoul at 00:35 in 2023 but landing in San Francisco around 17:30 but in 2022. Having places like Cook Island or Tahiti that is a couple of hour flying from New Zealand, which were still in the past year whilst the Kiwi territories were already in 2023 for a long time now.

Time is a continuous line but we, as humans, need some marks to know where we dwell. We have birthdays that celebrate our escape from the womb, as Stewie would say, and also a day we established to set the clock for another revolution around the sun. The chinese have a date, the Jews another one and we use ours, it could have been decided to be in the spring, or summer, or whenever. Now that we have become more global, it is fun to realise that the southern hemisphere will celebrate these holidays during the summer, when their days are the longest. The snowy image we are so used to see on the media, movies or shows, is just our own vision of it, and it need to be broadened. We can still celebrate whatever we want, but being aware of the flaws or the reasons why it is done the way it is makes it even more special. Or not.

And just like that we made it to 2023. Happy New year readers!