After excitement   on Santa’s wrapped up presents, singing Joy to the World and Kissing sweethearts under the Mistletoe, we finally enter the ‘The Last Teen-year’ of the 21^st century with a bang. New Year is the oldest holiday till date from the time it first kicked its existence in Babylon.

The dawn of a new hope is what makes 31^st and 1^st the two most challenging days in time.

  It is a period of self-rejuvenation and the warmth of togetherness spent with folks. It is a phenomenal time where a sole person generates their own choice of either leaving the bummer days behind or treasuring exceptional memories.

Apart from the mental enrichment at the time of having a clean sweep in this New Year, families and friends celebrate it with great fervour and zest.

In ancient history, according to the Gregorian calendar, the Romans adopted January 1^st as the New Year celebration day. In those days New Year was not an actual celebration. It wasn’t lavish or glamorous; it was associated with paganism, where Romans celebrated the Sombreness of Mary. But from the 20^th century onwards New Year became a celebration of relationships, nationality and a family get together. Hence, the parties and grand celebrations!

Dance, music, fun, fiesta and fireworks is what we enjoy today while bringing in New Year and looking to a new beginning. Most of the Families and friends deliberately celebrate the new beginning with an age old custom of burning the old man; “obviously a cotton-hay man”, says Sheryl Gonsalves, a writer from Colvale. She often enjoys watching the fire consume the old hag, symbolically meaning an end to the rotten bygones.

Gratitude filled lunches and tapping to the music with loved ones is another notified New Year celebration. There are also simple and strange ways to have a new beginning, just by laying inside a cosy rug and hearing the sound of fireworks in the sky; some may think of it as a lazy lonely lad, “honestly, that’s the best!” , say some; early to bed and early to rise’ as the new

 year resolution for them.

New Year resolutions are definitely known to be a ‘thing’ annually;for a great man once said, “Last year’s words belong to last year’s language and a new year’s words await another voice”.

Cafe take a look at some interesting traditional activities, people’s new motives and reasons behind a new beginning.

1.       Amandeep Kaur Garcha- FY Student, Hotel Management

 In our house we normally just have a partyor go on long drives. From this New Year onwards I look forward to do the things I wasn’t able to do in the last 3 months.

  Specifically, I plan on saving money, travelling more, talking less, getting a good reputation in college and learning to tackle tough situations in a mature manner.

2.       Prisca Dias – Housewife

 We celebrate New Year commonly like everyone else every year. But I have to mention that when it comes for the food preparation in our family, our speciality is the Goan Sorpotel. Everyone loves my mom’s preparation. She is good at cooking Sorpotel; hence she prepares it a week ago. That is our New Year; Sorpotel is like a cherry on top the cake that makes our New Year so special along with our friends and family. Besides this speciality, we usually tap our toes to the rhythm at Emerald Lawns; it is a place where we often celebrate New Year.

3.       Priya Agnelo Menezes- Teacher

 Every year we have our night service to start the year with blessings and grace from God. In this process each one from my family gives a verse from the bible and receives a unique word from God. This then full fills the prophesies for the next year. Later like every other family we have dinner together with thanksgiving and prayers.

4.       Pakhhi Bannerjee- Sales Consultant 

(Laughs)We have a very unusual way of celebrating New Year; in fact we don’t celebrate at all. Our New Year celebrations have a basic family principle- Compulsorily clean the whole house and wear relatively new clothes.

  This includes us going out shopping and purchasing new curtains, sheets and covers to drape the house in new décor. Besides that, we normally just wake up really late and then have a family brunch together.

5.       AideenNunes- Last year Student –Visual Communications 

This year my relation is to give myself a little more self- love. Moreover, I want to take a break from worrying about petty things and focus on ‘ME’, my presence of mind, how others emotions affect me and how not to allow it to affect me.

6.       Sr Betty- Salesian Nun

My family are my dear sisters living with me. We continue to live together as one big Salesian family sharing our joys and sorrows. We celebrate life together and will continue walking with Mother Mary this 2019.

7.       PrajyotVerlekar- Media-person

We get together like everyone else and have a good dinner at midnight. Along with the delicious food we watch a television program together. However, this time I am putting up a program, like a cultural event at twilight in our own village waddo. MY intentions are to bring our neighbourhood closer by organizing the program. I consider my village as my second family and would love us all to celebrate it together.

8.       Priscilla Janarthanan- Professional Hairstylist

31^st night is very special and it makes me very happy as I always consider it as a fresh start with a clear conscience. Along with my family opening a bottle of wine and having a wine cake to top it off is a must as a tradition.

 The best part is during the countdown waiting for the New Year to begin. And this year my goal is to have a healthy diet and slim down. (Winks) This time I’m going to have a great time from the attending church to swaying until next morning.

This article was first published on Herald Cafe on 31 DEC 2018