Happy New Year

But when does the year begin? Pick a date. It is closer to the Zen heart to say, “No beginning and no end.” So how can there be a Buddhist New Year? Actually, there are several. In America, you can take your pick among the differing Asian calendars of the immigrant communities and teachers who brought Buddhism to America. They’re not my calendars, so what do I do?

I’ve never been happy with January 1. Where did that come from? Apparently, Julius Caesar picked the date. I read Caesar in high school and still have an attachment to his rhetoric, but when it comes to celebrating the beginning of the year, who cares what Caesar said? Pope Gregory for one. In 1582 – for no apparent reason; he was trying to straighten out the date for Easter – Pope Gregory XIII decided to go with Caesar.

New Year’s has never been a favorite. Although once during high school, I got myself to the Times Square celebration, I’ve come to hate the New Year’s Eve struggle to stay awake until midnight.  New Year’s Day isn’t any better. What is New Year’s Day? Bowl games. Even when I was a gigantic sports fan, I was never into college football. More importantly, it never felt like the beginning of the year. January 1 marked the end of the mid-year school break. The beginning of the school year was an actual point of new beginning for much of my life. Rosh Hashanah was actually a better time for me to be taking stock, reflecting on the previous school year, resolving to do better, but I just couldn’t commit to Rosh Hashanah. I wasn’t so comfortable with my Jewishness either. Maybe I’m more comfortable now, thanks to my Zen practice. I’m not going to the synagogue, but I am taking the ten days of awe, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur as a time for stock-taking and atonement and affirmation.

So, Shana Tova. It’s the traditional Jewish New Year’s greeting. Have a good year.