I lived in New York City, the Big Apple, for almost twenty years and never visited Time’s Square on New Year’s Eve. In fact, I never met a New Yorker who went to the celebration. New Yorkers, or at least those that I know, tend to gather in small restaurants, apartments, or spin off sparklers from roof tops.

I think of New Year’s Eve as a rather intimate holiday. Yes, I know that there are great crowds in most of the world’s cities, but I have never been called to be among them. I would rather share a glass of cider with friends and vow to make the world a better place. For years, a friend and I would write down our resolutions, place them in a sealed envelope, and have them returned on the next New Year’s Eve. And, of course, there would be laughter as we confessed what we had or had not done.

So, what compels us to gather on the last day of the year?  Humans have done this for thousands of years. I think that it is about hope. New Year’s Day is the eighth day of Christmas which in the ancient Celtic world was the day when humans could co-create with divinity. Today it is, of course, the first day of the civil new year. Yet we still hold some of that creative spirit when we make our resolutions to help ourselves and the world to be better, more loving, more healthy, more peaceful. I make the same resolution every year but, no matter, it is still an aspiration to move beyond what I created or did not create in the past year. How sad it would be to enter a new year with a cramped vision of what is possible.

Many of our holiday celebrations come from the northern Celts. Yes, some of us imbibe on New Year’s Eve. It is a feast to let go of some inhibitions and play in the middle of the cold and dark. The Celts would celebrate the new year by making great vats of cider. They then went out and poured the cider on the roots of their apple trees and prayed that the trees would again turn green and bear fruit. They fed the trees as an act of hope, greeting the sun as it slowly returned to warm the earth.

So wouldn’t it be lovely if we gathered with a great vat of cider and wished each other, and the world, a blessing. A grand cry that 2023 be filled with apples, that no child go hungry, and that instead of creating war, we humans sit under apple trees, drinking cider and vowing to make this world a miraculous place.  And maybe we even plant some apple seeds.

Happy New Year and may we all help to make 2023 a year of beauty.