How often does a new year begin?

There are a lot of ways to answer that question.

At one end of the spectrum, every day is the first day of the rest of your life. If you or someone you know has stopped an addictive activity using a twelve-step program, you might be familiar with keeping track of how long you've been clean from the day you quit. That could have been a particular New Year's Day, or it could have been some random Thursday in July, but it becomes a pivotal date to count forward from—first in days, then weeks, then months, and then years. If you relapse into your addiction, you can recommit and begin counting again immediately; there's no need to wait for the first full moon after the last frost or any other symbolic date because the day you go clean is important symbolically and in a practical sense no matter when it happens. So, every day is or could be the start of a new year and it should be remembered and celebrated afterwards.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who believe that the whole notion of a 'new' year is arbitrary and meaningless since each day is an opportunity to do the next right thing or fulfill your duty or explore what the Lord has in store. No day is more or less meaningful than the one before it or the one after it. I will confess that I don't understand this point of view. I am personally drawn to thinking about cycles and the way that time appears to pass and commemorating important events so although I admire people who claim to see each day the same, I don't get it.

In between thinking of every day as the beginning of a new year and thinking of no day as any different from another we might say that the new year comes once per year by simple logic and math. Or you might celebrate the New Year with our culture on January 1st and with your Asian friends on the Lunar New Year and maybe you think about the passage of time on your birthday and your wedding anniversary. I know a business that serves cake on each staff member's 'work-iversary' – the date that person started employment. There are lots of opportunities to pause briefly and take stock of your situation, moving forward from that point with a refined sense of direction, which is what I mean by celebrating a new year. It might seem odd, but early Christians argued about if and how to go about these sorts of celebrations. Some wanted to observe annual ritual remembrances and others thought that those observances were a distraction from the task of living as a follower of Jesus. The apostle Paul, writing in Romans 14 to advise a church that was divided on this topic, throws up his hands and says each person should do what they believe is right, be flexible with one another, and stop worrying about it.

For me a new year starts three times annually. For practical purposes the new year for my household begins in September. I spent a lot of time in school, I'm married to a teacher, and my kids are all in school, so the beginning of September is an annual turning point for moving on from whatever happened 'last year' into the future. I haven't been in school for a long time, but I still sometimes get out a new notebook and tighten up on schedules and to-do lists as the fall season takes over from summertime. Second, together with our culture I pause and take a look at the calendar year past and future in late December and early January. This one makes the least practical sense to me, but it is nice to have a celebration in the winter. My birthday is in that time of the year as well and if I'm fortunate I can keep some sense of momentum going from December through Christmas and the New Year then hopefully into the middle of January before I fall into the great pit of winter and things tend to stall out. Finally, as we crawl out of the pit of winter there is a personal and work-related new year that begins in March or April each year as winter turns to spring, the days get longer, snow melts, calves are born, and preparations are made for planting seeds and constructing buildings.

Our church tradition doesn't think about this anniversary very openly, but Good Friday marks the end and Easter Sunday marks the beginning of a new year for the church too. There is a type of resurrection that happens as spring replaces winter, plants grow, animals are born, and light tips the balance over darkness, so our climate fits the celebration schedule. It's a great time of year to think about resurrection in all its forms as we see new life emerging around us and commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. As we think about Jesus, we look forward to how resurrection could be part of our own experience.

I think it's helpful and hopeful to remember the past and look forward to the future in particular ways on certain days. I hope you feel able to give it a try this year and can celebrate the beginning of several versions of the year, including the transition from death to life that we observe at Easter.