Happy Roman New Year, everybody! Just think, on this day, several centuries ago, Pope Gregory reformed the old Julian calendar so that the calendar would restart a few days closer to the Winter Solstice.
Now that we no longer must slaughter our livestock in anticipation of winter, our Germanic and Celtic new years at Halloween and mid-November indeed seem quaint.*
* "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition", Clement A. Miles
I had my hair cut on Dec 31 in hopes that this appeal to sympathetic magic would ensure a fresh start for the coming year.
Actually, I'll be dam**d lucky if I escape 2009's burgeoning list of mass layoffs. So, I guess instead of invoking sympathetic magic to herald new beginnings, I should have garbed myself in old socks and dirty underwear and prayed for the extension of the status quo.