New Year's Eve: What's the Party for Again?

When the clock strikes 11:59 pm December 31, 2007 and you are attending a New Year's Eve party, you had better be gathered around a clock with a second hand or a television with a live shot of Time's Square. It is simply not enough to revel in the passing off one year to another throughout the night. No, there must be a countdown to the exact second when the annual odometer of time rolls over its last digit. And if you are not there gathered with the pack surely someone will let you know you only have 50 seconds till countdown! So there you'll be - standing in a crowd of New Year's warriors armed with champagne bottles, noise makers, and confetti you'll find in your hair until January 3^rd.

...3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Corks pop, shredded paper fills the air, annoying sounds emanate out of cheap plastic devices made in China. Couples kiss, friends kiss, strangers kiss. Best wishes for the next 365 days are handed out like phone numbers at a singles dance - some real, some fake.

What really is the celebration for? This is a phenomenon which has always left me somewhat beleaguered when I try to understand it. During the dying moments of each December 31st I'm left wondering what people are so darn happy about. Not this year. This year will be different; I'm going to figure out what all the fuss is about.

To me, it just seems like a whole lot of hullabaloo and wasted champagne to mark the start of writing the wrong date in your chequebook and getting to open that new Dilbert desk calendar. But hey, it's the biggest party of the year. There has got to be more to it than that.

New Year's Eve/Day is somewhat unique as a holiday. It's not a celebration of religion like Christmas or Hannukah, not a celebration of state or government ala Independence or President's Day, and it's neither a holiday to rest like Labor Day nor one to give thanks like we do on the fourth Thursday of November. New Year's Eve celebrations are basically gatherings to mark the passing of one arbitrary moment to the next. So if the meaning behind the holiday isn't the reason; what is it?