At one second past midnight on Saturday, the first of 365 days of 2022, many are prompted to celebrate and step outside the day-to-day activity they have always been busy with to reflect, look back, take stock, assess how they did, and resolve to do better.
Why indeed does the start of the New Year carry verily special symbolism?
As part of his calendar reform, the Roman dictator Julius Caesar instituted January 1 in 45 BC as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future.
And why is its celebration so common around the world today, as it has been for at least as long as there have been Gregorian or other calendars?
This must be tied to something intrinsic in the human animal, something profoundly meaningful and important, given all the energy and resources we invest not just in the celebration but also in our efforts to make good on a fresh set of resolutions, even though we mostly fail to keep them.
It may be that the symbolism we attach to this moment is rooted in one of the most powerful motivations of all: our motivation to survive.
We have been celebrating New Year as far back as we can remember, which gives us a time to raise glasses, as it were, and toast our survival – and particularly on the second consecutive year of the worldwide health emergency that has infected and killed millions in the populated continents.
Save perhaps for our birthdays and wedding anniversaries, no other moment in our year gets this sort of attention.
It appears it is New Year’s, more than any other day, which makes the attainment of happiness more real and possible. This is the meaning of New Year’s Day and why it is so psychologically important and significant to people worldwide.
Our postulation is that if people were to apply the value-achievement meaning of New Year’s Day explicitly and consistently 365 days each year, they would be happier.
So every day, as from here on, we must fill our champagne glass of life to the brim with values – and drink deep to our life and the joy that it can and should be.
Happy 2022. Happy life.
