Last night, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Times Square, New York to count in the new year. Similar celebrations happened all across the world as the earth spun its way toward midnight twenty-four times. What did I do last night? I fell asleep watching Black Widow and turned in at 9:30. When I woke up a few minutes before writing this paragraph, the new year had begun. To quote Death Cab for Cutie: “So this is the new year / And I don’t feel any different.”
And that’s because nothing has changed. Moving from December 31st to January 1st is no different than moving from May 31st to June 1st, but no one celebrates that transition. And yet we humans feel the need to mark the occasion. In a month and a half, the Chinese calendar celebrates the new year. In October, the Jewish one does the same. Every calendar chooses a different date to acknowledge the moment the earth completes another revolution around the sun.
Celebrating milestones and holidays brings structure to our lives. In my professional life, I pastor a “liturgical” church that frames its worship through seasons set apart by various holy days. The rhythm of this calendar gives my life a predictable schedule. But the dates we choose for various holy days are tied to nothing concrete or factual in the lives of the people the days celebrate. Nowhere in the Gospel does it say Jesus was born on December 25th. And we date Easter each year by the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
There’s a lesson for creatives in the loosey-goosey-ness of our dating holidays like New Years. For those of us who write or paint or craft or make music, we put in the work day in and day out. For most of us, there is little external validation or market interest. The work must enliven us within the act of creation itself, independent of any outside hubbub. But we humans yearn for recognition; there’s no use denying it. So, if New Year’s Day can be any day of the year, if Canadians can celebrate Thanksgiving a month early, then you can choose a time to celebrate your creativity. Choose any day. Do it every year. Heck, do it every month. Double heck, celebrate your creativity every time you sit down to your creative work. Because what you’re creating blesses you and by extension blesses the whole world.
In my fantasy world Sularil, the new year is marked by a five-day Festival that. begins on the longest day of the year and is not part of any month. You can read about it in my Dungeons and Dragons novelization Torniel, in which the Shields of Sularil investigate the disappearance of two of their own during the new year holiday.
Adam Thomas, Author 