End of Year/New Year Rituals?

[herbgeek]

I'm looking for new ideas for my end of year retrospective/new year look ahead. I saw one on Facebook this morning that I liked:

Decorate a mason jar for the new year. Have small strips of paper when you can write the good things/celebrations that happen to you during the year. At the end of the year, you can relive the good moments by taking out and looking at all the strips of paper in the jar.

What do you do for a year end retrospective/ceremonies to mark the end and beginning of a year?

[bae]

We sort of follow The Old Ways here.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WxQ9HjC5qNo/TCsU11E4M8I/AAAAAAAAA3I/Ydv8uWACgnk/s1600/1973-wicker-man-1.jpg

[IshbelRobertson]

I'm Scots. We follow the auld weys, ie hogmanay. Here's a flavour

http://www.edinburghshogmanay.org

[Teacher Terry]

Too funny!

[razz]

I celebrate the lengthening of daylight with the new year.

I like the idea of noting and storing the significant events over a year in a container to be reviewed at year's end.

[Miss Cellane]

I try to clean something up, to get a fresh start for the new year.

Right now, I'm sorting a huge pile of paper--shred, recycle, file. That should be done today.

Then I'm going to sort out the corner in my bedroom where junk piles up and deal with it all. Then clean the room from top to bottom.

[Blackdog Lin]

I've always wanted to have a New Year's tradition of some sort.....but all these years, and still don't. Will cook some sort of special meal, but don't even have a traditional meal for New Year's.....

[Sad Eyed Lady]

I'm in a major cleaning out/throwing away mood. In an earlier post I mentioned getting rid of my old diaries and journals I have kept off and on (mostly on) since I was 12 or 13 years old. I have now gone through them all and am ready to destroy them. Today I have cleaned out a cedar chest i have had for over 40 years and pulled out old letters DH and I wrote to one another when he was in the military and they are also going to be destroyed. Last night I posted about a site to download printable will forms.... I don't know, all this together sounds ominous?

[Sad Eyed Lady]

I'm in a major cleaning out/throwing away mood. In an earlier post I mentioned getting rid of my old diaries and journals I have kept off and on (mostly on) since I was 12 or 13 years old. I have now gone through them all and am ready to destroy them. Today I have cleaned out a cedar chest i have had for over 40 years and pulled out old letters DH and I wrote to one another when he was in the military and they are also going to be destroyed. Last night I posted about a site to download printable will forms.... I don't know, all this together sounds ominous?

Wait a minute - that said nothing about New Year's rituals did it?! I think my point was, maybe this season of ending and beginning has prompted this purge I am going through. There, that's better.

[rosarugosa]

Right around New Years is when I always go through my files and cull stuff for shredding. DH mans the shredder. Not exactly a glamorous tradition, but practical for sure.

[Dhiana]

Since living here in Japan we visit a nearby shrine and literally ring in the new year on one of those really, really big, super old bells.

I also did several hours of shredding this past week, and gave our big, ugly metal 2-high file cabinet to the local charity shop. Big declutter win!!

[Lainey]

Eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day for good luck the rest of the year. Open the front door and sweep out the 'old' and let in the 'new.'

[catherine]

Our only traditions are carry-overs from my Scottish MIL, so we do first-foot. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-Foot)

That's about it. Unless you count watching many hours of Twilight Zone marathon

[Float On]

We always carve the current year into a log and throw it on the fire at 11:45 and spend a few minutes reviewing the good stuff of the year. New Year's Day is always spent making lists and plans.

[Rogar]

Sometime in January I get out my photo albums and go through all of them starting with old family photos of people long since gone to the most recent. I can usually spend a few evenings doing this and aside from really enjoying it, it is a nice reminder of times and people that are starting to fade in my memory banks. I'm not sure of the exact year when all my photos became digital and are only on computers or backups, but the hard copies seem much more fun.

[Gardenarian]

Party on the eve (casual get together) and cleaning on the 1st. We eat black eyed peas, too. I'd never heard of first foot. I'd like to be in Edinburgh for hogmanay sometime -though it must be terribly cold!