An December 31, many of us will probably let it rip again. And flash and sparkle. Even if it is restricted by rules in some places: fireworks and bangs on New Year’s Eve are our most popular custom to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one – and the custom has its roots in this superstition, along with the whole spectacle of the bad guys To drive away ghosts that would otherwise spread the next year. So a precaution.
There is a whole range of measures on New Year’s Eve to give the new year a direction. After all, many people take the opportunity to look back at what lies behind them and consider what is to come. Some people have such thoughts in a quiet minute on their birthday, but many people ask this on New Year’s Eve, and it’s easier to share then.
Lead casting is also a custom to deal with the new together. Today it is usually another metal, tin, which is heated over a candle flame until it is liquid. Then pour it into a bowl of water to cool. From the strange shapes in which the metal solidifies, one should then be able to read the future. This is nonsense, of course, but it can be fun to guess what each shape is supposed to represent and what it all means.
Image: FAZ
The most serious way to deal with what lies ahead at the turn of the year is to make good resolutions. Instead of just guessing or hoping how things will turn out and that something will change, you can also think about what you can do yourself to ensure that things change. That sounds very simple, but it is quite treacherous – because many people take on too much at once and then have to admit defeat after a short time. Especially when adults take the opportunity to stop smoking or do more sport, they quickly realize that a resolution alone is not enough: you need a plan on how you want to do it, and preferably a few at the same time Ideas of what to do when they realize they are secretly starting to shy away from their own purpose.
Many people use the six weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter for a very similar attempt: For Christians it used to be a period of Lent, what is left of this is the idea of giving up something for a while that you already miss a bit – sweets or sweets meat, on television or computer games, on cigarettes or alcohol. The fact that it’s limited in time makes things a whole lot easier than a resolution that should apply forever. And when you’ve finally made it, it’s actually not a bad feeling. But if you realize after a few days or weeks that you can’t stick to your New Year’s resolutions, and if you don’t even notice it for the first time because it didn’t work out last year either, then it’s actually not a resolution at all so good feeling
You can avoid that if you don’t make a bunch of good resolutions at once, but maybe just one. If you don’t formulate it very generally, but rather as precisely as possible – i.e. instead of “doing more sport” maybe say that you want to run once a week and go swimming once a week. Or instead of “reading more” plans a leisurely afternoon of reading during the week, perhaps always on the day when there is otherwise not so much going on. And if you then think about what should happen if something doesn’t work out – that you can make up for it if you have to, or that you can even skip it once a month without the whole good intention being wasted – then then you can at least try it.
An illustrated selection of articles from our column “How do I explain it to my child?” has been published by Reclam.
To the publisher’s page
