Happy New Year!



*Please celebrate wisely and don’t drink and drive or allow anyone who’s been drinking to drive home. Uber and AAA have resources for free and safe trips home.*


January 1st marks the beginning of New Year in the West but all through the year many religions and cultures celebrate their New Year at different times. Chinese New Year varies year to year as it follows the lunar cycle as opposed to the solar cycle like the West. 

Celebrating the New Year in America and Worldwide

New Year’s Day is a time to ask God for blessings on the year that is newly born and we make resolutions for the year to come. The Church exhorts us to pray the Veni Creator Spiritus to gain an indulgence* for the opening of the New Year. January 1st also marks the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and World Peace Day!  New Year falls when it does due to the implementation of the Gregorian Calendar. The colors for New Year are often gold for luck and white for peace. The inclusion of black I believe is to commemorate the death of the passing Year whereas silver and gold in this regard are used to commemorate time like silver and gold anniversaries. Father Time and Baby New Year both represent how the transition from one year to the next symbolizes the death of one and the birth of another. A custom for the New Year is to have a patron Saint adopt you as their own for the year, here is a resource to do so as well as here. Finally for mental health, disability inclusive and pet safety see the New Year's Eve post. 


*scroll to indulgences section of post, sections are alphabetical. 


New Year Recipes (Make this the year for humane living, go vegan!)

Customs for the Feast of Mary, Mother of God (This publication notes the Marian character of today’s  feast when it was celebrated under the name of Christ’s Circumcision but it is now officially changed in title as well. The liturgical color is white or gold to honor Mary’s purity in being the Immaculate, Ever Virgin Mother of God. We honor her role in our salvation as she gave birth to Jesus just one week ago. Today’s feast is a congratulations to Mary on a happy delivery! Also the feast of the Holy Name is now fixed on January 3rd.)

The Circumcision of Christ is the commemoration of the first time Jesus shed His Precious Blood for Humanity.

Resource for the Feast of the Mother of God 

Artwork of the Madonna and Child

“Mary, Did You Know?”

“"And if he weeps, thinkest thou his Mother could keep in her tears? No — she too wept, and when the Babe, who was standing on her lap, perceived her tears, he raised his little hand to her mouth and face, as though he would beckon to her not to weep, for it grieved him to see Her weeping, whom he so tenderly loved. The Mother, on her side, was touched to the quick at the suffering and tears of the Babe, and she consoled him by caresses and fond words; and as she was quick to see his thoughts, as though he had expressed them in words, she said to him: If thou wishest me to cease weeping, weep not thou, my Child! If thou weepest, I must weep too. Then the Babe, from compassion for the Mother, repressed his sobs, and Mary wiped his eyes and her own, and put his Face to her own, and gave him her Breast, and consoled him in every way she could."

—St. Bonaventure

New Year Customs Worldwide 

Many Scots also enacted purification rituals — known as saining — on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. These rituals involved censing house, barn, family members, and animals with smoke, often juniper smoke. Another common good-luck ritual consisted of opening the door at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve to let the old year out and the new one in. Many people accompanied this action by ringing bells and banging on pots and pans. The noise chased away any evil spirits or influences lurking about the house. -Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year


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