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New Year's Day

Happy New Year!

The first of January has been celebrated as the beginning of the year since the time of Julius Caesar. January, of course, is named for Janus, the god of doorways. Janus has two faces: One looks back into the year now gone by, and the other looks forward into the year to come. Nomen est omen, as we've said again and again; the names of things are always significant. When the old pagan world ended, many of its customs and many of its names stuck around. It is our view here that these things never happen by accident-- if the name of January endured, then, in a sense, Janus himself endured. In 2,000 years of Christianity no one has succeeded in renaming the months named for Janus, Februros, Mars, Juno, Julius or Augustus, nor the days named for the Sun and Moon, Tyr, Odin, Thor, Frigg and Saturn (or Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus in Latin countries). That their names endure shows that their power endures, and it must be by the will of God that this is so; and if it is no longer appropriate to offer sacrifices to them, we still honor their work in the world in other ways.

Traditional Practices

The New Year's Party is probably the best known and best kept of our traditional New Year's observances. The New Year's Party is very old and quite traditional. In earlier times, it was followed by a day of visiting-- on New Year's Day the doors of every house were flung open and no visitor could be turned away. This custom endured in parts of the United States until well into the 19th century, after which time the refinement of higher proof alcohols led to doors being locked until at least noon on New Year's Day.

Where I was raised in Pennsylvania, it was the custom to eat pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day, and it was well known that anyone who failed to do so was in for a year of bad luck. My grandmother was not the most enthusiastic cook, and so in my home this took the form of canned sauerkraut and spam or hot dogs, which one was still nevertheless required to eat. (In fairness to Grandma, she did bring up 13 children, starting in the last days of the Eisenhower Administration and continuing through George W. Bush's second term; at that point you'd probably open up a can of spam yourself. I'm not at that point yet, myself-- while it feels like I have 13 or 14 children, I keep counting them and coming up with only 2. So today I'll be making pork and sauerkraut using my homemade 'kraut and this recipe, which ought to be good as it claims to be the best pork and sauerkraut ever.

And then there's the New Year's Resolution. This is a very good custom, which traditionally took the form of serious reflection on the year gone by and the setting intentions for the year to come. These days, however, it seems mostly to consist of the buying of gym memberships which are used for 2 weeks and paid for for 6 months. Any time we participate in a collective activity, we are influenced by the energies of that activity, and the patterns that play out in others tend to play out in us. For this reason, I strongly recommend avoiding this kind of New Year's Resolution, as the pattern built up around it is one of abandonment and failure. There is, however, a better way to tap into the renewing energy of the New Year, which I'll come to shortly.

Feast of the Mother of God, Feast of the Circumcision

For many centuries, it was the practice in the Roman Church to observe January 1st as the Feast of the Circumcision, Conferral of the Holy Name of Jesus, and Octave of the Nativity. It is still the Feast of the Circumcision in the Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. The Roman Church in its wisdom has changed it to the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. While I personally support every effort to magnify the devotion given to Our Lady, I reject the modern Vatican's love of innovation for innovation's sake. Let this day remain the Feast of the Circumcision.



Now, that doesn't make it not a Marian feast as well. Here is the collect for the day:


And here is the Gospel:


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