A Happy New Year!

In New York, people start saying Happy New Year before the new year.  The holiday season here doesn’t end after Christmas but people stretch their holiday right up to the New Year. So I noticed that people started saying Happy New Year right after Christmas.

Yes after Christmas the New Year is around the corner, less than a week’s time but to hear people saying Happy New Year as a greeting in elevators and on the phone before the New Year  sounded a bit strange to me.

In Japan nobody would say Happy New Year till after New Year’s Eve. If you go by the calendar it is not New Year till after New Year’s Eve.

To us New Year is considered something more sacred. It is a fresh start. People would put on brand new cloth at the start of the New Year. Also everyone has a big cleaning day towards the end of the year in most of the offices and at home. It is a good opportunity to  throw away unnecessary things which you have accumulated in a year to make the environment you live
in a fresh start. It also gives you the opportunity to give a big scrub to the places where you were not able to clean in your daily cleaning. I have always felt after doing the big cleaning of the year that it has affected my mind too. I feel more organized and also feel peace of mind.