A Surviving Facts blog
New Year’s Eve— the end of one year and the beginning of another— is my least favorite day of the year. I have my reasons.
It’s not really a new year. Before the Romans, ancient societies built the calendar around the rhythms of the moon. A year was supposed to be thirteen months of 28 days each. This is why the month’s number doesn’t match with their current names. Deca is ten in Greek, yet we say December is the twelfth month. September should be the seventh month, not the ninth. After declaring the Roman Empire Christian, the Romans changed the year to 12 months of unequal lengths.
I have always felt the incongruence of the year end. Why are we celebrating new beginnings in the middle of the dead, cold winter? Newness comes with spring, which was originally the time of new beginnings. Trees bloom, animals bear offspring. This is the time to emerge from our winter retreat to embrace new life and possibilities.
Another reason I dislike New Year’s Day is the forced gaiety. What are we celebrating? A calendar? The day becomes an excuse for excess consumption and reckless behavior rather than the completion of one life season and the beginning of another. I suppose we don’t need any reason to celebrate— we can do so any day of the year. By this time, a week after Christmas and variable time after Hanukkah (depending on when it is) and towards the end of Yule, I am tired. The holiday rush from Halloween to Thanksgiving and then the December celebrations are particularly demanding on women who usually carry the holidays forward for their families. The invisible female labor of creating the season’s magic is rarely recognized by husbands and family. Women add this to their “regular” jobs in and out of the home. It’s a physically and mentally exhausting slog, resulting in a weariness that grows more profound as one ages.
I also dislike New Year’s resolutions. Around 30-50% of American adults make resolutions— that’s approximately 3 out of 10 people doing so. Only 9-10% actually maintain their resolutions. Most people give up within the first few months of the year. Why should we wait to set goals until a holiday forces us to? Again, it’s the false necessity of this tradition that annoys me. I set goals all year long, on a timeline aligned with my readiness and ability to accomplish the goals. This leads to a high probability of succeeding, which is certainly better for self-esteem and self-confidence than failure. Most Americans literally set themselves up for failure at the beginning of the year by setting these resolutions. Looking at the numbers, this means that millions of Americans disappoint themselves by the third month of the year.
New Year’s also seems to be a holiday for the young. I know few people who stay awake for the countdown. I am usually awake at midnight because I struggle to fall asleep at night. Even still, I see little reason to hail the end of one year and the beginning of the next. What significance does this have? It’s just one more minute on the clock. One tick and it’s over.
This year— with the political turmoil and dwindling human rights— has been an atomic bomb of a year, making this year’s revolution into a new year more fraught than ever before in my lifetime. All around me, I see the devastation of American democracy and the individual rights of all women, men of color and immigrants. Looking into 2026, with Trump continuing at the nation’s helm, I see little hope of fixing what he has broken. The attack on women, immigrants and difference has been atrocious. Meanwhile, the administration and its supporters continue to push the false narrative of discrimination and harm to white males. The facts in no way support this outrageous lie. I’ll remind everyone— again, though facts seem to make little difference these days— that white men have 90% of Fortune 500 C-suite roles, 74% of management roles and 72% of executive roles in American companies. Moreover, white men have benefited from DEI because of required gender quotas. In a most deserved irony, removing DEI already has reduced the number of white men going to college. Men’s grades and ACT/SAT scores are lower than women’s, attributable only to many white men’s inability to apply themselves to difficult goals. White men have created a patriarchal society that has harmed themselves.
And yet, this truth, supported by facts, is never spoken by the state-run and conservatively skewed American media, which is another perpetuated lie— that our media is liberal. Which brings me to another reason I dislike New Year’s Eve, especially this year. It doesn’t matter. It’s a holiday pretender perpetuating the American habit of lying to ourselves about our country’s quality and condition. Who cares about another year when women are dying because they cannot access healthcare or make their own healthcare decisions? When millions of Americans may and will lose healthcare coverage so we can give tax breaks and welfare to billionaires and corporations, which do not trickle down their gains to employees and the poor? When more American children are starving than ever before in my lifetime? When too many people in our country aggrandize rich, vile racist bigots like Charlie Kirk while disparaging single mothers and immigrants? When our President lies and chastises “his people” for not embracing his lies? When an astonishing amount of Americans do not understand basic economics and resent a socialist system that does not exist for the poor and downtrodden but does for the rich?
I could go on. My point is: I cannot celebrate another year like the one we have just endured. New Year’s Eve is already a forced holiday built on co-opted, patriarchal beliefs. It’s already a lie. And now, we live a perpetual lie, the naked emperor its mouthpiece. Our current state compounds an already questionable holiday.
I do wonder if our country’s condition is a reason why changing the calendar from one number to another is particularly joyless this year. I want to look forward to progress, rather than running a treadmill on reverse. We shouldn’t be unwinding the years, going backward rather than turning forward. Our country has fallen back, not leaped forward. Our current future is the past. The past is not where growth and opportunity exist.
Lest this be the most depressing entry I’ve ever written, I do see many signs of Americans waking up. Even some of the President’s biggest supporters are wavering. His MAGA sturdy are experiencing the discrepancy between their experience and his words. His cult is slowly eroding to infighting and distrust— just like Hitler’s did. Perhaps, then, the end of this particularly horrible, awful, terribly no good year will lead to a year of hope and light. Of truth and goodness. Of knowledge and care. Perhaps this time next year, I may learn to love this ridiculous holiday.
I would love to hear from you, even if, especially if, you disagree. Perhaps we can bring back the American tradition of debate. Please like and share this blog with others. Subscribe to receive it by email and go directly to the Walk the Moon website (www.walk-the-moon.com) to peruse the full collection of articles and updates. You can email me from the Walk the Moon website as well.
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