I once heard someone say they didn’t believe in the New Year, and I thought the concept was ridiculous. How can you not believe in the calendar? But then this person explained how the transition between December and January isn’t actually different than the transition between October and November, for example, as while January starts a new year and so a new cycle, November starts a new month, which also is a new cycle.

I then began thinking about why it is such a big deal, why we party on the 31^st of December and why we write resolutions, and why we swear everything is going to be different. I have an aunt whose favorite holiday is the New Year, and she sees it as a holiday of hope and union. Hope because it gives us a new beginning and allows us to leave things behind, and union because of its lack of religious affiliation, and how the whole world (or at least each whole time zone), counts down together towards midnight.

But then, it is really fair to say that the New Year doesn’t change anything? Can we ignore the power of so many people looking forward and not backward, at so many people pinpointing the closing of a cycle and beginning of a new one on the 31^st of December and the 1^st of January?

I think that both logics offer us a choice: if you had an amazing 2017, it is pointless worrying 2018 won’t be as good, as the New Year doesn’t change anything anyway. But if you had a terrible 2017, you can allow yourself to see the New Year as the closing of a cycle, and hope for better things in 2018. As for New year resolutions, I believe in their power, as resolutions are all about your own will to do something, and if you put power behind this closing and opening of cycles, you can put new strength behind these resolutions which will in turn motivate you to accomplish them.