Grace:
Having just celebrated New
Year’s Day on the Gregorian calendar, I am mindful of the variety of New Year’s
observances in different cultures and religious traditions. Most mark the New
Year in a particularly momentous way, whether solemn or festive. Interestingly,
this is not the case for Christians who follow the liturgical Church calendar
of the West and observe the religious New Year on the first Sunday of Advent, four
weeks prior to Christmas. Neither a fast day nor a feast day, the first Sunday
of Advent introduces a new cycle of readings from Scripture, ensuring that the
complete Old and New Testaments, the Psalms, and the Gospels, will be read in
weekly worship over the course of three years. At Advent, church vestments mark
the New Year with the color blue; one of four candles on an Advent wreath may
be lit during the worship service, and hymns anticipating the coming of Christ,
such as “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” are sung. No fireworks on this day; not even
great ceremony. The New Year comes quietly, as pondering hearts open to prepare
Him room.
What special meanings and
rituals are associated with the New Year in your faith tradition?
Yasmina:
The New Hijri Year[1]
also comes quietly with no celebrations or rituals associated with it. As a
matter of fact, the concept of the Hijri
calendar was introduced years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad [Peace
and Blessings be upon Him]. However, the end of one year and the beginning of
another one remind Muslims that they should treat every day as an opportunity
for reviewing their words and actions. It is also an occasion to remember that
time is a gift one should treat with wise care, as illustrated by the Hadith: “Take advantage of five matters
before the passing of five others; your youth before become old; your health
before you become sick; your wealth before you become poor; your free time
before you get preoccupied, and your life before your death.”[2]
This is an appeal to us to take action and give thanks as long as we still can.
For this reason, turning the page on another calendar year is seen not as a cause
for celebration, but more as a chance for contemplation followed by righteous
action.
Tziporah:
Both the verse in Psalms
and the Hadith evoke the solemnity of
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
Like the Hijri calendar, the Jewish
calendar we now follow is a later calculation of the early rabbis (1st
century BCE-1st century CE), who also instituted many of the rituals
of Rosh Hashanah—especially those
involving reflection on one’s behavior and repentance of one’s sins during the
previous year. Throughout the centuries, complex liturgical poems were added to
the public prayers. Many of these poems describe the martyrs of previous
generations, while others remind us that our lives hang in the balance as God
judges our deeds. One example contains the haunting refrain, “On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed;” this refers to
the fate of all those who will die in the coming year. The month leading up to Rosh Hashanah through the ten days following it are known as the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, which end
with a full day of fasting and repentance on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
At this time of the New Year, we wait in stillness for God’s decree.
[1] The first year of the Hijri calendar is the year the Prophet [Peace
and Blessings be upon Him] and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina. It
corresponds to 622 CE in the Gregorian calendar.
[2] Narrated by Ibn Abbas in Musnad Imam
Ahmad
