Doesn't really make sense to me why people regard it with so much enthusiasm, but then again, most of folk superstition doesn't really make much sense to me except that which was obviously implanted via commercialism.
So, what's the big deal? It's just another day, that won't happen again just like any other day, the calendar is a largely arbitrary system (We could have the new year at any day of the year and it'd be just as valid). No one celebrates the end/beginning of every month that I know of, so calendar changes aren't a big deal to most... While I'm all for celebrating change, that happens every day, and there's nothing particularly special about the new year. Is it just an excuse to get drunk and make out at a particular time, or what?...
2006-12-31 16:28:25 · 9 answers · asked by yelxeH 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
All people are daft. They need to feel some days are special. That's why the slave holiday of sunday was first instituted.
Happy New Year.
2006-12-31 16:31:17 · answer #1 · answered by rubbercod 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well thats just the point, going by the calendar, this is the new year so why not celebrate it?
You could use the same argument for every holiday and even your bday. Why 365 days between celebrating your bday? Try not to think about it too much and go with the flow! It is true many things we do as humans dont mean or amount to much. God matters the most. But if your bday, Christmas, and things like new year matter to you go ahead and celebrate!!!
2007-01-01 00:37:54 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is ending and a hopefully a new beginning, You can reflect on the year past and make adjustments for the year to come. That is the big deal. A time for an opportunity to change.
2007-01-01 00:37:24 · answer #3 · answered by J. 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I guess because it's a time to make goals for the future.
Goals that are broken by the second of January.
2007-01-01 00:30:37 · answer #4 · answered by SignsofPoetry 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Starting all over. Saying goodbye to a lousy year.
2007-01-01 00:30:34 · answer #5 · answered by Fish <>< 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You get to drink to excess, kiss people you barely know, and some of us get a day off work.
2007-01-01 00:30:47 · answer #6 · answered by Meridianhawk42 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It's a sign of a fresh start.
2007-01-01 00:31:19 · answer #7 · answered by Deleted 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
lighten up and have some fun
2007-01-01 00:30:26 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
True Christians know that “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (I Cor. 14:33). The original Greek word used here for “confusion” also means instability, disorder, commotion, tumult—words that perfectly describe New Year’s chaotic history. For thousands of years, men kept changing the beginning of their New Year from spring to fall, from March 1 to January 1 (and in some cases, December 25), to March 25, back to January 1 again—the dead of winter! “January 1 was restored as New Year’s Day by the Gregorian calendar (1582), immediately adopted by Roman Catholic countries. Other countries slowly followed suit: Scotland, 1660; Germany and Denmark, about 1700; England, 1752; Sweden, 1753; and Russia, 1918” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1998).
Even today, men cannot agree on the same date. “Chinese New Year is celebrated officially for a month beginning in late January or early February” (Ibid.). “The Muslim New Year falls on the first day of the month of Muharram and commemorates the date of the Hegira (July 26, 622 A.D., on the Gregorian calendar), the starting point of the Muslim calendar. Since the Muslim year is a lunar one consisting of only 354 days, the commencement of the new year fluctuates widely by the Western calendar” (Encyclopedia Americana). The Vietnamese New Year, Tet, falls between January 21 and February 19. “The Jewish New Year, a solemn occasion called Rosh Ha-Shannah, is observed during September or early October. Hindus in different parts of India celebrate the new year on various dates” (World Book, 2001). This is what happens when people insist on relying on their own judgment rather than trusting the One who designed the entire universe and everything in it.
Not only is the history of New Year’s confusing and chaotic, but so is the holiday itself. For some reason, people tend to let go of all inhibition—and many times self-respect—and simply go wild on New Year’s. They drink too much, “hooking up” with people they barely know, for quick affairs that yield life-long repercussions—and shoot guns off into the air to “ring in the new year.” Many throw away common sense in order to have a good time before the night is over. In most cases, the only thing people regret is that they have hangovers the next morning. However, that is usually the least of their problems.
According to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), on New Year’s Eve (1999), 43 out of 117 total U.S.-wide traffic fatalities—36.5 percent—were alcohol-related. The following New Year’s Eve, the number jumped to 75 out of 147—51.2 percent. On New Year’s Day (1999) 65.7 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths were alcohol-rated, the highest percentage for any holiday that year! That same New Year’s weekend had 53.8 percent. Think about it. People died because of the foolishness of others.
When America was still in its infancy, “many American colonists in New England celebrated the new year by firing guns into the air and shouting” (World Book, 2001). Unfortunately, that tradition still thrives in some parts of the United States. In 1993, the New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune, published a front-page informational graphic reminding citizens about the law of gravity: that whatever goes up (bullets) eventually must come down somewhere. Sadly, few heeded the warning. In fact, a top news editor for the paper who had just moved into town that year received a taste of this tradition—a bullet hole in his brand new car! Only a few years ago, a woman celebrating New Year’s in the French Quarter (which is along the Mississippi River) was struck down and instantly killed by a bullet. Authorities believed that the shot was fired from the other side of that massive river!
Obviously, a holiday this chaotic, violent and dangerous does not reflect God’s command to “Let all things be done decently and in order” (I Cor. 14:40). All true Christians recognize this about New Year’s celebrations and avoid them.
True Christians Live by God’s Word—Not by “Traditions of Men”
True Christians know that they must live “by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). They know that man cannot rely on himself to determine right from wrong, good from evil. Why? Because “the heart [mind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9), and “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23). God’s ways are higher, better, than man’s ways (Isa. 55:8-9). He designed us and gave us life. Wouldn’t He know how we are supposed to live?
God (your Creator) has given you (His creation) an “instruction manual” to help you live your life the way He originally intended (John 10:10). That “manual”—the Holy Bible—is God’s Word and His truth (John 17:17). It is filled with spiritual laws, statutes, and judgments guided by perfect spiritual knowledge, understanding and wisdom. II Timothy 3:16-17 states, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine [teaching], for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Only God’s Word can accurately distinguish right from wrong, righteousness (obedience to God’s commandments – Psalm 119:172) from sin (breaking God’s spiritual laws – I John 3:4 and Romans 7:17).
True Christians understand that, as the only real standard of truth man can live by, God’s Holy Scriptures “cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
But most people—even most professing Christians—love to follow the ideas of men. Jesus recognized this, warning, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men…Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition…making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered” (Mark 7:6-9, 13).
God commands His people not to follow pagan practices. Yet mankind follows them anyway. Nowhere in the Bible does God command true Christians to celebrate New Year’s. Nor are there any positive biblical examples of true Christians celebrating New Year’s. Yet, society (including most professing Christians) thumbs its nose at God, in effect telling Him, “We’ll decide what we should or should not do!”
Now what about New Year’s? Can you find any biblical examples of God’s loyal, righteous followers celebrating New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? What about David, a man after God’s own heart? What about Abraham, the father of the faithful? What about Moses, or even Christ?
The answer is no. Nor can you find a biblical command from God to celebrate such a day. Yet that does not stop most professing Christians from doing so. Christians actively search the Scriptures to learn God’s will. Their life’s mission is to live by God’s Word alone—not by the traditions of men, including pagan New Year’s celebrations!
God Has His OWN Calendar, With Its Own “New Year”
2007-01-01 00:37:16 · answer #9 · answered by I speak Truth 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋