Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Dec. 31, 2003

May the year wait for us beyond the mystic gates

"The day Time winds th' exhausted chain, To run the twelvemonth's length again." Robert Burns wrote those words in his poem New Year's Day 1791. And so it happened again on Jan. 1, 2004.

Charles Panati researched and wrote the book Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things published in 1987. Of New Year's Day he says it is the oldest and most universal of holiday festivals. In early language holiday translated was holy day and the earliest recorded such festival was in 2000 B.C. In light of today's headlines it is amazing that it took place in the city of Babylon, Babylonia, which was located near the town of al-Hillah, Iraq! It was 11 days of wild partying and centered on the time of planting to harvesting and was a plea for a good crop. The celebration ended at a special building called the New Year House. The ruins were excavated by archeologists years ago.

In this part of the world these festivals were held in late March to coincide with the planting season. There were no calendars until much later and after much experimentation the Romans finally settled on one version and January became the accepted date for the New Year to begin. Panati writes, "It is only within the past four hundred years that January 1 has enjoyed widespread acceptance."

For those of us who have welcomed the New Year many times we were accustomed to drawings of a very old stooped and bearded man carrying a scythe as he turned over the next 12 months to a lively diapered baby with a banner proclaiming New Year across his chest. The idea of a baby signifying rebirth began with the Greeks around 600 B.C. and it was picked up by the Romans and Egyptians. The artistic renditions of the old man turning over the year to the baby are not as popular today but Harry Irving Phillips describes such a scene in his poem "Exit and Entrance."

"Courage," the Old Year whispers as it ends, "Weary's the world and penitent and sad, waiting the touch to make all mankind friends - Yours be the luck and strength to do it, lad."

That bit of verse has a touch of pessimism but another writer found optimism as he looked forward. Horatio Nelson Powers called his poem simply "The New Year" and it is filled with simple pleasures to be found. "A flower unblown; a book unread; A tree with fruit unharvested; A path untrod; A house whose rooms lack yet the heart's divine perfumes; A landscape whose wide border lies in silent shade 'neath silent skies; A wondrous fountain yet unsealed; A casket with its gifts concealed - This is the Year that for you waits beyond tomorrow's mystic gates."

May we say next year at this time that indeed that was the year that waited for us beyond the mystic gates.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.