New Year?

Being as how I played The Grinch for Christmas, I suppose I’ll be The Grinch again. What exactly is it that makes the beginning of a new year a holiday?

It’s not a new beginning of anything (contrary to popular belief). Humans made up the system of marking events that we call time, and so it is a purely human holiday. The only reason that it is a “New Year” is because at some time people decided that a certain date would be the beginning of each unit of measurement that we call “years.”

Whether or not people celebrate the new year (if you want to call it that), things go on as normal. People live and people die, world events continue as they were before, and the majority of those making “New Years Resolutions” will continue in their old behaviors.

So what is the big deal about New Year’s Eve?

I really don’t get it. But then again, I suppose I don’t get many of the other major holidays. It seems to me that somehow society has determined that we need to be able to celebrate things, and so this is one of the things we celebrate.

In America alcohol is a big helper in this celebration. Now although it’s possible to get hammered any other day of the year (if you’re of legal drinking age or have someone who will buy for you at any time), it seems like this is a “special occasion” where it is acceptable, and even fashionable, to get shloshed in the supposed celebration of the new year.

As I said before though, I don’t see any real reason to celebrate anything. In fact, I wonder why it is that people see the need to have yearly celebrations of things that have no impact on the current state of things. We celebrate Christmas, New Year’s, Thanksgiving, Easter, Independence Day, Valentine’s Day, etc., and why? What is it with people that make us feel the need to celebrate things? Do we really need paid holidays that bad?

Personally I think it’s pretty stupid that people go out and celebrate the coming of a “new year” when they know full well that it’s just a continuation of the previous year and there is not going to be anything special about the coming one.

So in protest (or something), I’m going to stop right here and just do the same as I do any other night.

“Everything you say to me

Takes me one step closer to the edge, and I’m about to break

I need a little room to breathe

Cause I’m one step closer to the edge, and I’m about to break”- Linkin Park