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Too late for Happy New Year?*

14.4.2010
Too late for Happy New Year?*
And a happy new year... But 2010 started 4 months ago! The Gregorian calendar, yes, but for many cultures and civilizations it starts in mid April. For the Zoroastrians and those of the Bahai faith, it starts on the March equinox. The Telugus commence the New Year a month after this date as well. The Christian Churches decided long ago that the single most important event in their religion (i.e. The Resurrection) will be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the March equinox as Easter Sunday depending whether the church follows the Gregorian or Julian calendar. The Malayalees, Sindhis and Sikhs celebrate their respective New Years (Vishu, Cheti Chand and Vaisakhi) around now. Not to forget the Red Shirts in Thailand who called it truce to honour their Songkhran and at least the Singalese and Jaffnese celebrate something together on the same day. The Laotians, Cambodians, Myanmarese and the Dais of Yunnan celebrate similar function at about the similar times. I vaguely   remember the Balinese start their New Year in March by fasting, silence and meditation for 24 hours on Nyepi. All Hindus and Indians generally all over the world celebrate New Year today.
 The buck stops here, so to speak. This is how far the similarities go. Unlike their Chinese counterparts who celebrate their Chinese New Lunar Year irrespective of their practicing religion with their traditional mandatory reunion dinner, for a Tamilian who professes any other monolithic religion (e.g. Christianity or Islam), the Tamil New Year would be a non-event. Rather than being a cultural event, Tamil New Year is so intertwined with religion that it is now viewed as a religious event. Instead of looking at the similarities, people are going all out alienating each other from fellow homosapiens!

N.B. *Too late for goodbyes – Julian Lennon (1984)
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