As last year’s calendar comes down from the side of the refrigerator to be replaced with a new one, I reflect on this ritual that honors the passage of time. In this digital world, I no longer write many things on the calendar as those details are contained digitally, but the changing of the paper copies is one mark in this end of one year and the beginning of the next.
A colleague posted a brief comment on Facebook that they are ready to be rid of 2024 altogether—it has been a challenging health year for them. Others added their own commiseration in the comments as they yearn to erase 2024 and hope for a better 2025 for a wide variety of reasons. We both choose to remember what we have experienced at the same time that we anticipate that which is yet to come.
Looking forward, is not especially easy, since none of us can see into the future. Most of us enter each new year hoping that what will come will be more good than bad. But hope is not just about passively wishing for the best. It is a choice about how we engage in the world. It involves both remembering lessons from the past and working toward visions of God’s beloved community yet to be.
Remembering and Looking Forward
Many cultures have rituals to mark this transition from one year to the next. One poignant observance for African Americans is known as Watch Night. Just a little over three months following President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order that abolished slavery in 1862, enslaved and free African Americans secretly gathered to wait for the news that freedom had arrived with the turning of the clock into the new year. Many continue today to gather in remembrance of slavery and await freedom and celebrate with their community in worship.
There are also less sacred rituals of counting down time into the new year. Some communities drop symbols, perhaps symbolic of letting go of that which is past. The year our family was in Flagstaff, Arizona, on New Year’s we opted not to head downtown to watch the dropping of the pinecone but stayed in the hotel to watch the descending crystal ball in New York City on TV instead.
The year we were in Barcelona for New Year’s we watched as everyone carried their baggies of grapes with them. We did not participate, but everyone around us ate 12 grapes very quickly, one for each month, as the clock struck midnight to guarantee luck in the coming year.
Other rituals revolve around food served with family on the first day of the new year. Some eat pork because apparently pigs, who root forward as they eat, symbolize progress. Similarly, fish is another protein that represents progress and abundance because they swim forward in schools and produce multiple eggs at once. Consuming greens or cabbage (in my family, in the form of sauerkraut) is a ritual to encourage prosperity because they represent money and health. Black-eyed peas represent coins and are also linked with prosperity. Pomegranates are considered lucky in a variety of cultures. The numerous seeds are seen as representing the fortune you can expect. And dishes with long noodles in Asian cultures represent longevity.
All of these, whether we believe the superstitions or not, help us remember that there is a certain amount of luck involved in life—that we are not in control of everything that will happen. And although these rituals may not actually influence what is to come, they do connect us to family and the cultures that shape us and give us a sense of belonging.
In turning the page, in replacing the calendar, we lay our disappointments behind us and start with a refreshed perspective about what is yet to come. In the eating of traditional dishes and participating in repeated rituals, we mark the passage of time. We can take the opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned from the past 365 days as we begin again looking forward to what is next.
There is no ritual tradition in the Christian faith surrounding this evolution from one year into the next. But we can make for ourselves traditions that help us acknowledge that not only are we not in control of what is to come, but that we can rely on God’s grace. We are not alone in the unknowing but must remember God-with-us.
So, what do you do to recognize the opportunity that we have to welcome the new? To move forward in trust that God will guide us to participate in the work of love in the world around us in the coming days, weeks, months?
Resolutions, Intentions and Expectations
Some make resolutions to change behaviors or attitudes. Others set new intentions. Ultimately this turning of the calendar can be a ritual to the invitation that we open our hearts and minds to that which is to come, trusting in the presence of the divine. One friend chooses a word for the coming year to focus on some aspect of God’s call in their life. For others, it might be helpful to engage in a ritual that symbolizes intentionally leaving behind disappointments and pain from the past months.
Here is encouragement for you to engage in those things which support your physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual health and well-being in this year. Here is encouragement for you to be connected to community and know that you belong. Here is encouragement for you to find new ways to give your gifts to others and to have the courage to ask for the support that you need. Here is encouragement for us all to remember that this yearning we have for the good, the better, is nothing new. May we take courage from those who have gone before us as members of the faithful community engaged in work of love in the world.
May we find ways to embrace life’s change as we look to a new day, a new year, a new chapter. Blessings to us all in 2025!
For Reflection (either individually or with a group)
Read the blog. Read it a second time, maybe reading it aloud or asking someone else to read it aloud so you can hear it with different intonation and emphases. Invite the Divine to open your heart to allow the light of new understanding to pierce the shadows of embedded assumptions, stereotypes, and ways of thinking so that you may live more abundantly.
Download a pdf including the Reflection Questions to share and discuss with friends, family, or members of your faith community small group.