New Year's Traditions

I may be a week late, but Happy New Year everyone! 2012 is a year that I know many people have been looking forward to.

Personally, I'm not very big on New Year's Resolutions; everybody jokes about how we all forget them within a couple of weeks, and it's true. I agree that goal-setting is a worthy activity, but waiting until that specific day to start them seems a bit arbitrary.

As a family, we've also never been pretty big on the whole 'New Year's Eve' thing either. I hardly ever remember staying up to cheer on the New Year, or watching the ball drop in New York. A friend introduced me to the idea of eating black-eyed peas for good luck, but I don't think my family has ever done anything of significance for luck in the new year. Generally, I'd stay up late (as a normal teenager on break) and listen to our neighbors making noise before finally nodding off an hour later.

I do have one tradition, however, that I started for myself a few years ago. In Japan they call it Hatsuhinode - watching the first sunrise of the year. I'm not sure exactly where I picked it up, but I decided to start watching the first sunrise as a way to personally celebrate the calendar rollover.

To make it more interesting, I forbade myself from falling asleep the night before the New Years Sunrise; I would see the sun set and rise in one complete wakefulness cycle. I believe this has been the third or fourth year I've been doing this, and so far I've managed to make it the entire night every year.

For those first few years, however, I couldn't drive myself anywhere, so I had to get my dad (who wakes up early anyways) to drive me out to a good spot. I'm surrounded by mountains where I live, and there are no really tall buildings, so it isn't impossible to find a clear, unobstructed view of the Eastern horizon. Dad agreed to take me out, so we'd look up what time the sun was expected to rise and drive to a good spot ten minutes early, then sit in the car talking while we waited.

This year was a bit different in multiple respects. For one, this was the first year that I could drive myself out to watch the sunrise, letting dad sleep in if he so chose. Also, this year my mom was asked to host a New Year's Eve party at our church, which meant I would have to be helping out. I also have a ton of friends away at college this year, with only a short window to see them when they are home, and I could not pass up spending most of the Saturday before New Year's at a friend's house; these last two points add up to me not being able to sleep in late, as I normally would like.

That evening we had the New Years party, and I spent the better part of it sitting on my own, or guarding the various booths, or reading the Unabridged Monte Cristo, or chasing a rat (a story for another time). We didn't get home until about 11:00 or 11:30, and it seemed like only a little while after that when our neighbors started cheering and we realized it must finally be 2012.

We bought a flying shark for the party. His name is Phil.

My parents went to bed, after mom watched an episode of her British Costume Drama, Lark Rise to Candleford, and I spent most of the evening/morning either reading, eating, playing Plants versus Zombies, or watching The IT Crowd.

The sun was 'scheduled' to rise at around 6:40-6:50, and I actually lost track of time before looking down and realizing it was time for me to leave, if I wanted to make it to a good spot before the first rays of the sun came out. I hurried to get dressed only to discover I had no idea where the car keys were.

Since I've been driving, mom has been having a hard time getting used to the idea of giving up the keys to me. I completely understand, but I was running late that morning and felt bad digging into her purse while she was trying to sleep. It turned out that she had mislaid her keys somewhere, and as I didn't have time to find them, I ended up taking my dad's.

I also didn't have my camera so these are all pictures I found online.

I was also supposed to wake dad up in case he wanted to come along as well (he sleeps in on Sundays, otherwise he would have already been up), but as I was running late there wasn't time for that either. I managed to head out the door, any ounce of tiredness gone during my early-morning panic, with just enough time to spare.

A friend of mine had suggested a certain place to drive out to, where there was a clear view above our freeway. It was a bit weird, driving out that early in the morning after having not slept at all the night before, but it's also a really nice feeling. I parked the car by a field a little ways out of town, listening to the music on my radio jump drive.

I don't normally get to see the sun rise, so maybe it's always like this, but the first sunrise of the new year is beautiful. Apparently you're not supposed to look directly into the sun, but I couldn't help it; at that particular angle, the sun has a pure golden look, something you rarely ever get to see. We don't really get clouds where I live, and clouds are what I think make sunsets so pretty, but that sunrise, unobstructed by clouds, was so much more beautiful.

I drove home and collapsed into my bed before having to wake up a couple hours later for church. Definitely worth it.