Most cultures around the world celebrate some form of new year festival. These celebrations have been around for thousands of years. Originally it wasn't so much the coming of a new year that was celebrated, but the changing of the seasons. I was introduced to this concept thanks to the Redwall series, where events are said to have happened "four summers ago", or a cask is said to have aged "for three falls". A more recent example can be found in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, where characters are asked how many winters they have lived to see.
As human societies became more intellectual, calendars were invented. The most widely used nowadays is the Gregorian calendar, which marks the new year as beginning on January 1st. However, not every country and group uses this calendar; for instance, the Chinese New Year is celebrated on a lunar cycle, meaning that it falls on January 28th this year. Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish New Year festival, begins on September 20th. There are many other variations throughout the world, falling on dates all over the calendar.
When many Americans think of the new year, resolutions are often associated with it. Interestingly enough, New Year's resolutions are not practiced all over the world. Most countries have their own unique spin on New Year's practices; for instance, the Japanese have small shrines called kadomatsu which act as a sort of temporary housing for the kami during the transition to the new year.
It is hoped that the family whose kadomatsu the kami stay in will be blessed by the grateful spirits. I haven't been able to look into why Americans seem so fixated on making resolutions for the new year, but it is certainly a tradition we have embraced.
With that having been said, I thought I'd make my resolutions for 2017 here.
It is my goal to:
1. Finish Lips as Red as Blood, my current work in progress.
2. Get ahead on blog posts before the semester begins.
3. Publish Sleeping Love, a book I wrote in 2016 as a Christmas present for my mom.
(She's already read it, and it met with her approval!)
And since this is the official announcement of Sleeping Love, let me give you guys a sneak peek at what the story is about! It's Sleeping Beauty...with a twist or two thrown in!
Justin's kiss may have awoken Rosalie, but it left the rest of her kingdom asleep. Worse still, Rosalie has no memory of her life - she only knows her name because of Elliot, Justin's gruff and taciturn guard!
Seeing no other options, Rosalie agrees to let Justin take her home and wed her...but at night, she dreams of playing with a boy with green eyes - eyes almost precisely the same shade as Elliot's.
Are these only dreams, or are they remnants of her memory? Is Elliot more than just a wandering knight? Can Rosalie find a way to unlock her past...before her future is sealed?
Sleeping Love will be out fall 2017!
How do you guys celebrate the New Year? Any fun resolutions made, or things you hope to try? Let me know in the comments below!
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