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S.Turi, Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

I have a confession to make. 

New Year 2020/21 was one of my most memorable New Years and Christmases, but not for traditional reasons. 

COVID-19 was devastating communities, many people had succumbed to it, restrictions were in full force and locally, an indefinite curfew had been imposed. The festive season was looking to be a historic one for its bleakness, isolation and fear of the unknown. Every public sniff and cough behind a mask was eyed with suspicion. Families were separated by distance and illness. There were so many rules and regulations to follow that, three years on, I can barely remember them all. 

But New Year’s Eve 2020 was one of the best I have ever had. 

For once, the pressure to be doing something to ring in the New Year better than watching Anderson Cooper at Times Square was absent. My family and I relaxed and watched a movie. Like everyone else, we couldn’t go anywhere, even if we’d wanted to. There was no hype, anti-climatic feelings or regrets for not organizing something for the occasion in comparison to others. 

Celebrating the new year has always felt empty to me. Unlike Chinese New Year and Christmas, there is no backstory to give meaning. It’s just a number celebration and once the countdown is completed it ends in a fizzle of cliched well-wishing. Will I fulfill my New Year’s resolution? No. Will this year be happier than the last one? Like economic predictions — it’s a gamble. 

Ringing in the new year has always felt more like a practical celebration than a festive one. How long will it take to get in the habit of signing the correct date on my cheques? Maybe a week or so. When should the needleless Christmas tree be discarded? After day 12. When do school and winter sports start? Around day eight or nine of January.

In analyzing the value of Western New Year celebrations, I like to use the celebration of the Chinese New Year as a comparison to understand why ours feels so empty. 

Chinese New Year 

The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between January 21 and February 20, celebrating the end of winter and the start of spring. Already, celebrating our connection to nature is an optimistic way to start the new year and gives a space for reflection far from the stress of Christmas activities. 

The Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The evening preceding the first day of Chinese New Year is frequently an occasion for families to gather and indulge in the annual reunion dinner. It is also tradition to thoroughly clean houses and dust away bad luck to make way for the good. The decoration of windows and doors with red paper-cuts and couplets reflect popular themes such as good fortune, happiness, wealth and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red envelopes. 

Though Chinese New Year is steeped in family customs and superstition, it has substance in its stimulation of creativity and forward-lookingness. In other words, it gets people to generate positive energy, instead of nursing a hangover or wallowing in feelings of loneliness. Getting over the winter hump of January can be especially hard on those living in northern climates, and finding ways to cheer oneself up is called coping. 

During the COVID lockdown, especially during the curfew, when gatherings were forbidden and masks were ruthlessly mandated, citizens were obligated to improvise, make the most of their home life and break the same old holiday routine. Personally, in between cooking and baking, I relaxed and remembered to water my plants, when in the past I would have been focused on what I should be doing. Online resources like therapy and social chat rooms were more widely available at this time to compensate for the pandemic, which created a feeling of togetherness, despite its transitory passage. I have positive memories of interrupting my evening doldrums to join a chat group to discuss Low Entopy’s family gatherings at this time. 

The Importance of Personalizing a Celebration. 

Even if one is not Chinese, finding value in another culture’s approach to celebrating can help in relieving the pressure of the holidays. Doing things differently on occasions instead of repeating the conventional has always been effective for me in breaking out of the blues. Some of my approaches to the festive season have been successful, others not. Attempts in the past to go on meditation retreats to escape festive season stress have worked, but have left me feeling like I’m running away from something instead of facing it. 

Ultimately, I’ve found that, beyond the practical, celebrating the new year is less about partying and more about taking yearly spiritual inventory. If that requires spring-cleaning my home on the 31st of December or sleeping through it to take stock of my life another day, then I’ll allow myself this space. 

But there is also a certain comfort in knowing that with all social customary celebrations, this too shall pass.*

References: 

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion_dinner 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

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I am an illustrator, writer and fine artist living in Quebec with an appreciation for nature, poetry, history and philosophy, though my interests are so varied that they cannot really be summarized in a nutshell. I enjoy writing poetry, short stories, painting, daydreaming and truth-seeking, amongst many other activities.