So we made it to 2017. Fireworks all over Tamarin Bay. Nice to watch, but the dogs were scared shitless, one of them literally. Poor creatures.
I have never quite understood what people see in the beginning of the calendar year, an artificial point in time, even within the Gregorian calendar. A new year could also begin on, say, 1 May, with the same reasoning, or lack thereof, as on 1 January. In England, until 1752, the year even started on 25 March.
Luckily, the Gregorian calendar has been adopted worldwide as reference, otherwise many communications and agreements would be a nightmare. Different cultures still use other calendars in parallel, for example the Chinese, Islamic, or Celtic calendars, for traditional or religious activities. And of course it makes sense that we all agree on a calendar date for a new year to start for very practical reasons. Starting on the first of a month makes sense – 25 March wouldn’t make many administrations happy. :) So 1 January is as good as any other start of a month. But it does not have meaning deeper than a practical agreement.
I do understand the wish to connect one’s life to some cycle. I personally prefer a cycle that has meaning with respect to the real world: the solstices. They are nicely defined by natural phenomena, without any baggage of beliefs and dogma, and they indicate two actual turning points within the course of a year.