Celebrating new year’s eve is something I have never enjoyed.
I cannot really tell why. After all the little magical Christmas things I enjoy so much, this evening seems much more stressful. Much more real. Like a party for real adults to look back and making new plans. Although I have not taken part in such a party in a long time, I still manage to start crying at about 6 in the evening each year.
Have I thought of everything?
Have I missed deadlines?
What kind of paperwork will be waiting for me?
Oh my god, I’m getting older! Yes, my birthday is in January. Tough luck.
Also, I don’t like the noise. Something that makes me nervous as well.
“Last year, I worried about getting fired”, I tell my witch. “Although I hated my job, and quit in February anyway. This year it’s if I did my taxes correctly.” And more hot chocolate is needed. “Cheers on starting the same shit all over again!”
Layla rolls her eyes. “Tasteless greeting cards for the next harvest season were already handed out in my time.” And she giggles. “Not that it helped us a lot.”
No, my witch lived during a time of terrifying wars, famines and plagues.
But at least they had greeting cards already invented, for the fun part of it.
To learn about the life of my witch also means to understand how these festivities worked in her time, since every little piece of the picture matters for an authentic biography. And in this case, there are a lot of similarities.
“We also had the noise”, Layla continues, sitting on the window sill in my grandmothers old night dress, barefoot, and I was jealous about her not feeling cold at all. “Chasing the cold away, the shadows, or the evil ghosts. People used drums and fire, sometimes even guns and canons to escape the dark and silence of the winter months.”
Also, my witch must have lived in an area of Germany that in the first half of the 17th century had already accepted the Gregorian calendar at the time. Made official by the Vatican in 1582, in Germany the date still stayed chaotic for most of the next century, since all the protestant areas did not want to accept the change.
“It was useful, though”, Layla reminds me. “With the older Calendar, the year was a bit too long and spring started a bit too late.”
This was relevant, since knowing the seasons mattered for harvest and therefore survival.
“So, in this case, the catholic church actually reformed something for the better, and the protestant groups rejected it still”, I mumble into my hot chocolate. History is full of surprises. Institutions do not stay the same over centuries and their goals and way of actions always have to be reviewed over the cause of time.
So, celebrating the new year must have looked quiet similar for my witch.
The Gregorian calendar marked the start of the new year with the start of January, there were greeting cards and good wishes and a lot of noise and lights to defy the darkness and the evil in the world.
Sounds awfully familiar.
“Is winter the best time to start the year?”, I think out loud with a yawn.
Yes, what happens astronomically, when we declare the new year?
“Oh, back in my days people were fighting and debating about which thing in the sky encircled which and which did not”, Layla giggled, and I remembered. Her time was also when people were slowly discovering that the earth rotated around the sun, and may probably be only one of many to do so, and not the center of things at all! Scandalous.
To the astronomical background of New year’s in January it is important to say that the only really important thing is that the earth needs 365 days, or a bit more actually, to encircle the sun. Any point of its elliptical orbit could mark the start, since it would return to the (more or less) same point a year later. Around the third of January, the sun is the closest to the earth, to have one aspect of its position mentioned.
“And still we have winter, because the distance has nothing to do with seasons”, I now try to giggle in the voice of my witch and she stares at me, amused at most for my weak imitation. “Just, you know, for anyone still in doubt about the real reason for global warming.”
The stars are full of surprises, too.
I still don’t like celebrating New Year’s eve, and I am glad that it is over for now. My witch lived in a time where a lot of our recent normality has been shaped in the familiar way, so at least I can connect with her over this!
Starting the new round of the calendar is a deadline that triggers my anxiety. Isn’t that wonderful?
Now, let’s survive the dark and old months for a spring full of colors and roses!
https://earthsky.org./human-world/why-the-new-year-begins-on-january-1/
https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-gregorian-calendar
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/the-new-year-once-started-in-march-heres-why
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/als-preussen-zehn-tage-aus-dem-jahr-1612-strich-100.html
https://www.br.de/kinder/silvester-feuerwerk-geschichte-mittelalter-kinder-lexikon-100.html
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/neujahrsfest-rituale-des-uebergangs-in-den-verschiedenen-100.html
I wish I’d told you all my stories.
I want to tell you all my storiesIt’s not that they would changeIt’s just that I would likeTo see themFormA new expressionOn your face I need to tell you all my storiesI am not sureIf they makeSenseThe way I thoughtThey do. I will tell you all my storiesThey frighten meI’m sure you won’t endureI see…
Dealing with darkness in writing
This spring afternoon is glowing pink and tastes like strong tea. It feels much too familiar, and I begin to open up.I feel far away from myself as I start to talk, to babble on about my novel. About all the things I’ve been reading about in the past 5 years. About the 17th century,…
Radical witching novel rewrites at 4 AM!
I wore the same night dress my witch used to wear to get drunk on my windowsill, when I suddenly had an idea at 4 AM. Great ideas always happen at 4 AM, remember? This one however, kept me awake for at least a week, debating it back and forth. At some point my witch…
Mistress witch writes 
Happy new years!
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