Growing up, we always had a special family gathering and meal on
New Year’s Day. We had a kewpie doll that stood ten inches highwho came out of storage every year as our New Year’s Baby.
Dad had made her a top hat and cane and he would boldly letter
the year onto a wide piece of ribbon and attach it across Kewpie’s
chest. She stood proudly on the dining room table wearing her
New Year’s Banner like an award winner of a beauty contest.
Kewpie was surrounded by an arrangement of striped paper-ribbon
confetti, hornsand other noise makers that cranked loudly when spun
or filled with air to emerge from the mouthpiece as brightly
coloured paper snakes. The occasion was always fun but lacked in
meaning except for the joy I always felt (and still do) hanging up
a new calendar and opening it to January.
You have to imagine the top hat and ribbon banner 2018.
A few friends think of Spring as a more appropriate “Beginning” or “New Year”.
In Canada, it is the season of rebirth as underground bulbs push fresh leaves and
fragrant flowers up through the melting snow, animals come out of hibernation,
people emerge from their winter layers and lairs and birds migrate home.
I however consider Autumn the spiritual beginning of my “New Year”. I have
a few friends who feel the same way as summer’s heat gives way to cool
energizing days where the warm sun filters through coloured leaves and
silver grey skies and tumultuous clouds produce the best sunsets.
Years of being a student and then a teacher set my inner clock for an energy
burst and fresh start each Fall. And, it is harvest time and sweater weather;
what more need I say?
