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Everyone has an idea of what it means to celebrate the New Year “as expected”. A Christmas tree, a sauna with friends, the ashes of a note with a wish in a glass of champagne, the color of clothes and dishes according to the Chinese calendar… What do these rituals mean to us? We turned to our experts for an answer.
“We gain control of time”
“When celebrating the New Year, we pay special attention to the chimes, the date, and the magic of numbers. And this suggests that the New Year’s ritual is associated with such a mysterious and little subject to us thing as time. Deep within us lives the fear of his omnipotence, irreversibility. In particular, before the inevitability of the New Year. Of course, he will come regardless of whether we make salad “Olivier”, whether we put on special clothes. But by participating in this ritual, consciously and fully living the last minutes of the year, we seem to gain control over time.
“They give us a sense of inner stability”
“Through rituals, people satisfy the ancient desire to control their own destiny. Each person has their own little tricks that help, for example, to pass an exam well or successfully conduct a business meeting. New Year’s rituals in this context are especially important: they allow you to “program” yourself for a whole successful year. The essence of New Year’s rituals is fully expressed by the well-known phrase: “As you meet the New Year, so you will spend it.” Previously, this would have been called a conspiracy, a spell. But the essence remains the same. We need faith that if we light the lights on the Christmas tree, make a wish and clink glasses with the last blow of the chimes, then everything will be fine in the new year.”
“We strive to relive the joy of childhood”
“Some of the strongest, brightest and most positive emotions that we experience in life in general are associated with our childhood anticipation of the New Year. As adults, we strive to revive those joyful feelings and pictures of childhood, when dad and mom were young, the magic was real and Santa Claus was hiding under the tree. We go for gifts, set the table, review our favorite films and thereby restore the emotional state that we once experienced and which is difficult for an adult to feel again without special rituals.
See also: Why do we believe in Christmas stories?
The truth about Santa Claus
“The child does not know what to ask Santa Claus for!”