Isn't it time?

During the days of my childhood, I recollect that I always had a longing for the “New Year” celebration. To me it was a holiday time, a celebration day with new clothes, good food and union with friends. The festivity usually began a week before Christmas, when Mom used to make all kinds of Indian cookies (pindivantalu in Telugu). Until the Christmas day, my brother and I were busy cleaning the house, decorating the Christmas tree and buying greetings cards from the little savings we had out of our pocket money which was Rs.10 a month and kept on increasing every year as we grew up.

The saga of celebration continued past Christmas and until the day of the New Year. The biggest excitement about the New Year’s eve was the midnight mass and to me it still is. The preparation included, nice little naps in order to keep awake in the church, a clean hair wash in the evening, new clothes different from the ones worn on Christmas day and packing those post card greetings to wish the friends at the Sunday School. When it was finally time to get to the church, the entire family took my father’s ride, his scooter at around 9 PM when it was chilling cold. I wonder if I ever felt the pain of standing on the rider’s footrest leaning forward to facilitate visibility to the traffic. The excitement probably outweighed the pain. After hours of preparation for the much-awaited event, I hardly remember how long I used to be awake or even participate in the worship. In the dawn of the Big day, I used to go around the neighborhood enjoying the art of Rangoli (it’s a design drawn by Indian women on the wet ground in the front yard, with a fine white powder aka Muggu) filled with vibrant colors and colorful flowers that welcomed the New Year. Wishing everyone a happy new year and collecting the greeting cards, flower bouquets, apples, cakes and diaries that both my parents received from their friends and colleagues were the highlights of the day. The day then finally made it's way to the dusk, setting forth another year long waiting for the next celebration!

Years later, I realize celebrating the New Year is much more than just enjoying a holiday, wearing new clothes, having good food, partying or even merely being present in the midnight worship. The celebration is about bidding farewell to the year gone by, in anticipation to a successful New Year. It is a time to bless and worship the Lord for his faithfulness in bestowing upon us the countless blessings each single day during the past year. It is acknowledging God’s presence in guiding the footsteps to get through the most difficult times of our lives. It is the joy of welcoming the onset of another 365 days that the Lord has added into the calendar of our life, offering prayers with expectations for a much more hopeful, peace-filled and healthier days to come. It is also a perfect time to reminisce; make resolutions for the transformation, a milestone to discipline and train the character of the self.

Isn’t it time to welcome another set of 365 days in the wake of self-transformation?