It's the time of year to traditionally take stock of life but let's look forward.
There's a whole fresh 12 months out there to do everything right and make the most of. New Year has taken a bit of a back seat as far as celebrations go; it used tobe a big deal in most houses with a turkey or goose and trifle to match Christmas, fresh diaries opened and resolutions for the next 12 months taken very seriously.
In our house, New Year's Day was always marked with the ritual opening of the calendars. They would start arriving about halfway through December in cardboard tubes from stock and station companies mostly.
Those with Malcolm Evans' Edna cartoon were always the best, but landscapes were always pretty popular, particularly alps and lupins for some reason. They were a promotion for the businesses, and the idea of buying a calendar would have been preposterous. Tossed into a high cupboard after they arrived via rural delivery, they were not to be opened until the old year had ticked over.
Like all unwrappings, there was a lot of promise in getting those calendars down from the cupboard and out of the tube. Each was dispatched to a wall. And it was a lovely New Year's Day ritual in a season of lovely rituals. Calendars were important and not just because years were much longer then.
They once decorated every home and nearly every room, but today we don't need them because we have cellphones to find the date. I'm not even sure if they are sent out by firms these days.
But we haven't chucked out all traditions. In this time of goodwill, on this date, I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2014. May it be your most successful year yet.
