New Year’s can be any day of the year

New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday, Charles Lamb said. It’s that one special day when we all get a fresh start on life. It’s the chance to kick a vice and take up a virtue.

Then again, New Year’s Day need not be celebrated only on January 1. Julius Caesar set that first day of the Julian calendar as New Year’s Day only because it was the day Roman officials began their duties. Other lands and religions have their own official New Year.

In case we fail to make a list of New Year’s resolutions on the first day of the year, it’s never too late. We can start compiling them anytime, and do our resolving on any of the following New Year’s dates: Druid, Jan. 8; old Scottish, Jan. 11; Hebrew, Feb. 7; Chinese, Feb. 18; Tibetan, Feb. 26; Sikh, Mar. 14; Persian, Mar. 21; Indian, Mar. 22; Celtic, Mar. 25; Siamese, Apr. 1; Nepali, Apr. 14; Parsi, Apr. 23; Babylonian, Apr. 24; Buddhist, May 26; ancient Greek, June 21; Runic, June 29; Armenian, July 6; Zoroastrian, Aug. 23; Alexandrine, Aug. 30; Russian Orthodox, Sept. 1; Ethiopian, Sept. 11; Coptic, Sept. 12; Byzantine, Sept. 14; Jewish, Sept. 16; ancient Egyptian, Sept. 23; Moroccan, Oct. 3; Samhain, Oct. 31; Hindu, Nov. 12; Jain, Nov. 13; Sikkimese, Dec. 12; Papal States, Dec. 25. Why, for all we know, there can be 365 New Year’s days any year.

We can even defy religion or culture, and be modern in celebrating New Year’s. We can go by Dell Computers’ new fiscal year, on February 1st. That’s also the Retailers’ New Year, observed by Wal-Mart, J.C. Penny, Target, Home Depot, Toys R Us, Gap, Kmart, Lowe’s, Staples, and the Canadian aviation firm Bombadier. Japanese tech fans can mimic Aeon and celebrate the new fiscal year also on the 1st of February. Cisco Systems’ is August 1st; Costco’s, September 1; Disney’s and Siemens, October 1.

The idea is to find just the opportune day to begin to change oneself. Problem is, according to surveys, only 55 percent of us keep our New Year’s resolutions for one month, and 40 percent for six months. Don’t ask about the remaining five percent. Let’s just say that the New Year usually gives people a fresh start on their old habits.

And yet we need to change; we know we do – before it’s too late. For, as Horace said, the fleeting years are passing away. And as we advance in age, we begin to value the more basic things in life than the material. These are the nonmaterial, like love and relations, health and tranquility. At the New Year’s Eve party, the emcee asked us to stand beside that one person who made our life more enjoyable. Half the men present stood up to hug the bartender.

Some people, to remember their resolutions, start keeping a diary. Samuel Pepys, the English naval officer, wrote such a journal, the famous Pepys Diary, from 1660 to 1669, in which he recorded his life in London and the King’s court. The first entry, on Jan. 1, 1660, when he was 27 years of age, somehow told of his first resolution to be optimistic as possible: "Today I went to see Major General Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered. He was looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition."

The Indochinese New Year is a day of honor and festivity. While they feast and revel on that day (coinciding with the Chinese and Korean New Year), they also solemnly undertake to pay off all indebtedness and obligations. Friendships that have been strained and broken are restored as far as humanly possible. They then bow before Buddha or to the memory of their ancestors, stating that their debts have been paid and quarrels mended, and ask for New Year’s blessings.

Following is a New Year’s resolution, written decades ago for a Christian magazine. That it is anonymous makes it apt for everyone:

I will:
Like Enoch – walk in daily fellowship with my Heavenly Father.
Like Abraham – trust implicitly in my God.
Like Job – be patient under all circumstances.
Like Joseph – turn my back on all seductive advances.
Like Moses – choose to suffer rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.
Like Caleb and Joshua – refuse to be discouraged because of numbers.
Like Gideon – advance, even though my friends are few.
Like David – lift up my eyes to the hills from which comes my help.
Like Jehoshaphat – prepare my heart to seek the Lord.
Like Daniel – commune with God at all times and in all places.
Like Andrew – strive to lead others to Christ.
Like Stephen – manifest a forgiving spirit toward all who seek my hurt.
Like Paul – forget those things that are behind and press forward.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]