New Beginnings

The new year is a momentous time in most cultures. A transition, an end, a new beginning. In some ways, the new year is a whole new world. It is full of undefined potential, for both good and ill.

It’s worth considering, for any setting you create for fiction or roleplaying, how the various cultures in your setting view the new year: when they celebrate it (whether in the depths of winter or the beginning of spring, or some other time), how they celebrate it, what it means to them. Do they have special customs regarding it? Do they set off fireworks, if they have them? Perhaps they weave elaborate illusions with magic. Perhaps they burn old things they wish to leave behind in great bonfires. Perhaps they themselves pass through the fire, symbolically and perhaps mystically burning away old sins and flaws.

The New Year may involve confession and penance, or resolutions for the future. It may nbe an auspicious time for weddings. In some cultures, every single person may celebrate their birthday on the New Year, instead of on their actual day of birth.

The day may have specific foods. There may be cetain foods or herbs they eat or hang or place benath their pillows to attract good luck, or dreams of future love or prosperity. Certain things may be forbidden that day, like cleaning, so you don’t accidentally sweep or wash away the next years luck.

Couples might be sure to kiss their beloved right after midnight. It might even be very common for couples to engage in coitus as soon as possible. New Year, new life, right?

Open windows and doors to let in new luck and make noise to scare bad spirits out . . . or keep all the doors and windows closed and hang holly or garlic to keep evil at bay.

The possibilities are endless. How do your cultures see the New Year?

Let me know in the comments.