THE departure of the old year and the arrival of the new year have always been commemorated in all civilisations, whether they used the solar or lunar calendar.
The lunar New Year falls mostly in March/April while the solar is always on January 1, but whatever calendar they used, human beings, over the millennia, responded in essentially the same way to the passing away of the old year and the arrival of the new.

There is, therefore, something inscrutable and mysterious regarding these anniversaries, which is explained by the symbolism of the various myths and traditions that have become attached to them over the millennia. Guyana, being a Western country, shares the same traditions as other Western countries at this time.
Old Year’s Day is treated as no other day in the year. It is treated nostalgically as the end of an era of one’s existence, and this feeling of finality calls upon us to have our accounts closed and all the various facets of our lives brought into order.

Homes are again cleaned, and household furniture and equipment are renewed or refurbished as had been done for ‘Xmas’ and the Xmas decorations are still kept, but now, with a new meaning as they move into the New Year and must continue to stand for 12 days until the 12th night.
Another Old Year’s superstition or tradition is that on the last night of the year, demons and evil forces make a last-ditch attempt to overcome human beings but are driven away by loud noises, and this accounts for the noisiness of Old Year’s night growing into an explosive crescendo at midnight.

In the past, many churches had midnight mass on Old Year’s Night so that the faithful welcomed the New Year in the presence of God. Probably, the most enduring tradition of Old Year’s Night is the balls and dances, which erupt into loud noise at midnight, followed by the singing of the Scottish song Auld Lang Syne to welcome the arrival of the New Year.
The arrival of the New Year is always regarded as the opening of a new era of existence when human beings are presented with a new opportunity to correct the failings and omissions of the past and move forward into greater creativity.

Accordingly, this is manifested in making New Year’s resolutions, which are really an attempt at New Year’s planning.
Such planning could include re-establishing contact with friends and relatives who could be lost forever if this is not done as Auld Lang Syne reminds us: make the effort of grappling with and eliminating the various things which we have kept putting off over the months and years and which will disastrously overwhelm us except they are brought under control.

The technique of doing this is by living in the present, not dwelling on the past or future since they do not exist; the illusion of the past and future overwhelms us. This is one of the messages of Lord Buddha and is elucidated by the wisdom teacher Echart Tolle, whose offerings can be heard on the Internet. This method is also reinforced by the Stoic teaching of Marcus Aurelius, who tells us in his “Meditations” to live every day as if it were the last day of our life.

These New Year resolutions we have mentioned so far are purely personal, but our homeland is in a very singular position unlike any other country in the world; it has suddenly become an oil-rich country which is working to fend off the Resource-Curse syndrome, and at the same time it faces an existential threat from Venezuela where Guyanese nationality is threatened.

These two happenings, though strictly national, are so closely intermeshed with the personal existence of every Guyanese citizen that they have imperceptibly become subjects for personal resolutions of which we give two examples: First, “We resolve to enlighten ourselves fully with all aspects of the Guyana/Venezuela controversy and never to give succour, wittingly or unwittingly, to the enemy and to lend our unstinting support to those who are confronting the enemy”.
And second, “We commit ourselves to learn about the workings of the oil economy and the activities which are being used to fend off the resource curse and the Dutch Disease and to critically examine them”.
Guyanese have an interesting New Year to live through with the surety that the wishes and aspirations of peace and prosperity will materialise in their lives.