Celebrating new year

A.M. Khan

Much is said and celebrated on every last day of the concluding year for the incoming new year. Different people have different philosophies on the Gregorian and other new year calendars, and ways of celebrating them either by boding well or wishing best.

It’s celebrated differently in different times and ways with their own philosophies of concluding the past and opening a new chapter of life. Some say it is a step up on life stairs, few call it a hitch hiking, others a recount of one’s travelogue and role playing, and similarly for some it is nothing new but a change in a year after another.  

Different countries have different times and ways of welcoming the new year and bidding farewell to the outgoing year on the last day of the year. New year’s night is celebrated in evening parties where people may dance, eat, drink and watch or do light fireworks. 

People in some countries go to church to celebrate the new year, some arrange parties, concerts besides celebrating old rituals, traditional dinners and family gatherings.

Unlike many countries celebrating the Gregorian calendar, very few countries either celebrate two new years’ celebrations like Korea, or celebrate the lunar new year. Quite diverse like the people of India where apart from Gregorian New Year’s eve celebrated in major cities, also Parsi new year, Hindus’ and Muslims’ new years are celebrated in different places on different times.

The eve of new year in Pakistan is celebrated with fireworks in big cities, musical nights, aerial firings in some places, and concerts in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad etc. Also going out on food streets, parks, restaurants and gatherings are parts of the new year celebrations.  

Though prayers in homes individually or collectively are quite limited on new year eve in Chitral, also because of harsh weather in December, sitting till midnight in old days just for the sake of welcoming the new year was like a self-punishment. New year celebrations are so specific to some areas and people, rather to say few circles. It is a rarity, specific to gatherings of young people with cards and board games and music events.

Traditional delicacies such as xolai, shoshp, halwa and mixed dry fruits are arranged after food and drink in the opening of new year after midnight on Dec 31. Musical programmes and mushairas are also arranged on this day.

This is how new year eve is celebrated in the world and the highlanders of Chitral with their own time and ways, boding well and wishing all the best in life as a new beginning of the same journey with new hopes, commitments, goals, wishes and felicitations to everyone.