The close of the calendar year. Time for celebrations, perhaps.
I remember, as a child, the effigy of an old man being burnt at midnight by youth (perhaps inebriated, I was too young to remember, but I’m pretty sure that was a thing!).
When I got a bit older, I would hang out with my ‘friends’, for a very few years, at a ‘ball’, watching enviously as the more hip guys danced with the hot girls, while I sat behind the band in my well-worn clothes, and borrowed shoes. I remember the distinct pleasure of getting my own shoes, and the distinct pain of the shoebite when I wore it for the first time to one of those ‘balls’!
For a couple of years after we got married, we stayed up late the last few nights of the year, watching a movie or having people over in celebration of the ‘new year’. The desire to stay up late disappeared when the kids arrived, raised its head when we moved continents, disappeared again until local friends’ showed up wanting to celebrate new years at our place, generally inviting themselves and counting on our polite non-reluctance.
I suspect we’re going to have ‘guests’ over again this year, but for the next night or so, I’m going to enjoy blissful sleep 🙂