Forget the dropping ball in Times Square. Forget Dick Clark and his rockin’ New Year’s Eve. Whether it’s early or late, for me, Rosh Hashanah always arrives at the perfect time to celebrate a new year. Now, as an American Reform Jew, I accept the assimilated society in which I choose to live.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I can sing all the verses of “Jingle Bells” with the best of them — as can my dog. But I can’t help thinking the rest of the world needs to find out that when it comes to timing the new year, we Jews have it right. The Jewish year begins at the time of new clothes, new folders, new classroom assignments, new teachers — and the promise of good grades and better study habits.
And our bodies are replenished from the sunshine and physical activity of summer, ready to welcome the routine of earlier bedtimes and early morning starts. There are shorter days ahead. And harvest crops, new recipes and something for dinner that’s not grilled. Nothing beats the potential of my fresh, uncrumpled academic calendar.
The technology-savvy can keep their Palm Pilots. I prefer to sit, my sharpened pencil in hand, and plot school schedules, early dismissals, band concerts and game practices. I whisper a little prayer that each birthday entry will be celebrated with appropriate cards and gifts and that the planned occasions will be happy ones.
Last year, as I casually penciled in “our 18th wedding anniversary” in the little calendar box on Sept. 11, 2001, how could I have imagined its new significance? The rest of the world should adapt to this treasure — the Jewish New Year.
A midwinter new year’s celebration just doesn’t compete. While I never pass up an opportunity for a new year’s resolution or two, it’s cold and bleak and just not a time for new beginnings. How did the world get so far off track?
Jan. 1 wasn’t always New Year’s Day. In ancient Babylon, the new year celebration began with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. That seems like a logical time to start a new year — the season of planting and rebirth.
The Romans continued to celebrate the new year in March, but so many emperors tampered with the calendar that it soon was out of synchronization with the sun. To set the calendar right, the Roman senate declared Jan. 1 the beginning of the new year in 153 BCE. My personal favorite is the revelation that as Christianity became more widespread, New Year’s Day was celebrated as the feast of Jesus’ circumcision.
Now in my family, that’s a lifecycle event that need not be commemorated every year. Our Jewish lunar calendar — which begins with the traditional date of creation, 3762 years before the beginning of the Western calendar — unites all Jews. Whether Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist, or somewhere in between, this calendar of celebrations binds us to the rhythms of the moon and strengthens us as a people united in custom and faith. Still, no matter what calendar we follow, time passes much too quickly. Our calendar entries attest to our busy lives and hectic schedules.
This new year, may our hopeful calendar entries come to fruition — our events attended by those we love and care about. Ken yehi ratzon — may it be God’s will — and may we work to make it happen.