People have celebrated the holidays, winter break has ended, and the new year has arrived. For many, this is a time of optimism—an opportunity to look forward and start anew. As the holiday excitement remains vivid in students’ minds, their enthusiasm turns to motivation, and they begin to plan and aspire for 2024.
People have celebrated New Year’s since 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia. In the Julian calendar of 46 BCE, the Romans established January first as the beginning of the new year, honoring the month’s namesake—Janus, the Roman god of new beginnings, who had two faces that looked both back to the past and ahead to the future. While the date of the new year has changed in many instances and is still celebrated at different times by different cultures, from the time of the Babylonians to now, it has been an opportunity to look forward while considering the past.
People often ring in the new year by sharing meals, watching festivities, and making resolutions, a practice that the Babylonians may have started 4,000 years ago.
“To celebrate New Year’s, my family and I dined at a nice restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal of unique foods that we don’t get to eat very often, making it feel special,” Montgomery Blair High School freshman Miriam Torrey-Coffidis said. “Afterwards, we went to a party and brought the New Year in with friends and family.”
One popular activity for New Year’s is watching the ball drop in Times Square. Richard Montgomery High School freshman Julia Sun said, “We didn’t get to go into Times Square, but… we saw the ball drop from the back, right outside of Times Square.”
Resolution-making is a common tradition as well. When asked about her goals for 2024, Torrey-Coffidis explained, “I would really like to improve my organization skills this year. I think that developing better time management and productivity skills will allow me to feel happier and less stressed overall.” However, many people do not practice making resolutions. “I don’t really take New Year’s resolutions very seriously, so they don’t work,” Sun said.
While the Gregorian calendar’s New Year celebrations are popular worldwide, many cultures have other celebrations that follow different year lengths. Among these, Rosh Hashanah and Chinese New Year both follow lunar calendars. Sun said, “For Chinese New Year, I take it as more symbolic [than January first]. Especially because, of course, we celebrate New Year’s, like we watch the ball drop and we do things like that and we stay up, but for Chinese New Year… It has more to do with my own culture.”
However, above all, New Year’s is a time to anticipate future memories and milestones. “In 2024, I am looking forward to finishing my freshman year of high school… I’m also excited to spend more time with my friends and family.” Torrey-Coffidis said. “To me, New Year’s signifies a new chapter in my own life. It’s a time to remember everything that happened in the previous year, and find the strength to slowly let it all go. It’s a day that formally acknowledges time passing and seasons changing.”
Written by Daniela Naaman of Thomas S. Wootton High School