New Year's Repose - Out with the Old, In with the New

Posted on January 9, 2023

Regarding holiday celebrations, some of the most popular ones in America are Thanksgiving and
Christmas. It isn’t hard to see why those holidays are popular either, food, gifts, spending time
with loved ones, those are exhilarating holidays. For myself, I always appreciated New Year’s Eve
and New Year’s Day. New Year, at least in comparison to those other holidays is a little more
lowkey, personal, spending time with just my immediate family. Bringing in the New Year serves
as a calm reflection of what happened during the past year and what the future will hold. This
month I’ll be talking about this holiday and why it’s one of my favorites.

New Year’s Eve was always special to me growing up because it was one of the few times I was
allowed to stay up well past my bedtime. Midnight was such an alluring event because I was
always tired but relished in the chance to be an adult to some extent. My family didn’t just stay up
to watch the ball drop, we did other things as well. Oftentimes we would either buy or make a
New Year’s Pretzel. A New Year’s Pretzel is essentially a giant cake in the shape of a…well Pretzel.
The pastry is topped with icing, nuts, and other dressings on the cake. It was always so much fun
to have something exclusive because it only came around once a year.

Another thing that my family did to bring in the New Year was banging pots and pans right at
Midnight. Yes, even my parents got involved and throughout my neighborhood, you could hear
pots and pans clanging and banging in celebration. To be honest, I still prefer this method over
personal fireworks which can be a little dangerous, and dogs weren’t a big fan of those types of
fireworks either.

While I’m not really one for big life-changing resolutions because there’s so much pressure to set
unsustainable goals, I think it’s important to reflect, and maybe even write out everything you did
and accomplished for that past year. I’m someone that never realizes how much work I actually
do sometimes, even as a child. By making a list of these things, you can see how much you’ve
done and how many people you’ve helped. New Year for me even now is calm and quiet and I
really appreciate it for what it is.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and take care!