New Year . . . why not September?

As I'm fighting the need to get ready for a new year of teaching music, I started to wonder about the reasons for our Western European/American tradition of designating January as our "New Year". Nothing starts in January . . . except for new cycles of colds and the flu. Wouldn't it be more enjoyable to hang out in Times Square in the month of October? The fact is that most people, especially those of us who live with school-aged children, connect our lives with renewal each September (okay . . . we start school in August now, a fact that I deplore). Fall comes, football starts, the nights become cooler, the lazy hot days of summer start to recede . . . fall, even though plant growth starts to recede, seems to be a time when modern people simply wake up. Who doesn't like fall?

Don't get me wrong, I love the month of January. I was born in January and have always liked the idea of my birthmonth being named after a Roman god. Janus is the Roman god of gates, doors, and doorways. Quixotically, the pre-Julius Caesar Roman calendar designated the month of March as the beginning of the new year. Julius, being a typical over-bearing "What-I-say-goes" kind of Roman emperor, instituted the foundations for our modern calendar. Considering the seasons (northern hemisphere), the month of January occurs in the dead of winter . . . not exactly a time when we look for renewal. I've often wondered if I suffer from affective seasonal disorder as I find the months of January, February, and March to be very depressing and dreary.

Other cultures don't follow our Westernized sense of conventional beginnings. I was surprised to discover that the Christian calendar designates the month of March . . . I had easily forgotten this fact that was first presented to me during junior high Sunday school classes. Do we need to follow the mammoth over-commercialized holiday of Christmas with another excuse to party and drink? While Christmas is now characterized by excess, the season of fall is characterized by beauty in nature, bountiful harvest, and cool nights that encourage wonderful slumber. People used to celebrate harvests with barn dances and fall fairs. My own children probably don't know why fairs exist.

I also discovered, in my non-scholarly research of this idea, that quite a few cultures have used the moon cycles to determine the specific day of the new year. We seem to ignore the moon these days except when an unpopular politician tries to send a space mission there . . . in an effort to gain a few approval points in the polls. The festival of Diwali (yes, all you Office fans, this is where I learned this term) follows the moon cycles and occurs on a full moon in October and November. Maybe we could start using the moon as a reason for a holiday celebration . . . instead of simply honoring dead white men and Martin Luther King, Jr. I like the moon . . . it's beautifully simple. I love the way it changes colors as it rises over the horizon.

On a more practical standpoint, do we really need an alcohol infused holiday during a season of the year when can be treacherously icy? I know, residents of Sydney, Australia don't have this weather problem but New Year's Eve has become one of the prime nights for alcohol related vehicle "accidents" . . . sorry, DUI accidents are not really "accidents".

Anyway, I'd better stop meandering through my random thoughts. To all you teachers . . . enjoy the last few moments of summer!