Tevye and New Year’s traditions | Opinion
I vowed I wouldn’t do it again since it never lasted beyond the first week. But, as Tevye, the Milkman from “Fiddler on the Roof” said, “It’s tradition!”
New Year’s resolutions are well-meaning, but hard to keep. When the ball drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, we think about the things we will do differently in the coming year. They may not be too different from the vows we made in 2023. A few we managed to keep. Others were gone before February.
When I was growing up in Brooklyn, my pre-teen girlfriends and I welcomed the new year with slumber parties. We watched as Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played dance music for the glamorous and sophisticated couples on the dance floor at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The tradition of televising the band began in 1954. My friends and I yearned for the time we would be part of that scene. Alas, for me, it never happened.
In 1972, Dick Clark began the tradition of “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” His early guests were Olivia Newton-John, the Beach Boys and Chicago. It wasn’t the same as Guy Lombardo, but the music was more current. Life magazine wrote, “If the Royal Canadians failed to play ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at midnight, the American public would not believe the new year had really arrived.” It was traditional just as live video soon became traditional from Times Square when a countdown began for the crystal ball to fail and usher in the new year.
Some traditions have a long history. Early Christians believed that the first day of the year should be spent reflecting on past mistakes and resolving to improve oneself in the future. January was named for Janus, a mythological king of Rome who was two-faced. He could look to the past and the future and was believed to be a god of good beginnings.
A German tradition was to dress a male friend in a diaper and party hat and have him welcome the new year. Too chilly for Times Square!
Another tradition was to eat something in the shape of a ring on the first day of the new year. It was symbolic of the coming of a full circle and believed to bring good luck in the next year. I’d choose a bagel or chocolate doughnut! Cabbage leaves were also traditional on the first day of the new year in certain parts of the world. They represented paper money and who couldn’t use a little of that luck?
In early Greece, celebrants of the new year paraded a baby in a basket to celebrate Dionysus, their god of wine. The baby represented the god’s rebirth as a symbol of fertility.
Different families and different ethnicities have different ways of welcoming in the coming year. When they celebrate in the same way year after year, it becomes their family tradition and isn’t that what really holds families together, building traditions?
It doesn’t matter how one chooses to celebrate as long as they are stay and respectful of other traditions. In these complicated times, it’s important to remember that although we look different and have different values, each year we have an opportunity to start fresh and create our own traditions.
Dorothy Dworkin is a freelance writer and writing teacher.