Let’s Begin Anew

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The year passes by and we sit to promise ourselves to learn from old mistakes and make resolutions to being anew on New Year. “This year I’ll work towards eating out less.” “I’ll quit smoking”. “I’ll save money from my salary and invest properly to secure my future.”

Year after year, we make such commitments with regard to a habit or lifestyle that we wish to bring changes into, on New Year’s Day. And we hope to remain committed till the set goal has been achieved. The idea behind is to leave some old habits to start fresh in the New Year.

Surveys of contemporary New Year’s resolution show health-related goals top the charts every year. This includes pledges to lose weight, exercise more, and quit smoking. A close second are financial resolutions, such as plans to increase savings, conquer debt, and avoid excessive spending. Rounding out any list of today’s common New Year’s resolutions are those pertaining to relationships with friends, family members, trying to be more patient with co-workers, and striving toward better communication skills.

The tradition of taking a resolution at New Year’s Day and fulfilling it in the coming year dates back to the early Babylonians. They believed that what a person does on the first day of the New Year will affect him or her throughout the year. The Babylonian’s most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

The Romans associated the New Year’s resolution with their mythical two-faced king Janus as they believed Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. That is why he became the ancient symbol for resolutions. As a result Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

Even the Chinese New Year, which falls around late January, has seen many moons. Among the several customs associated with the Chinese, the New Year resolution is housecleaning. This continues in the list as one of the most common New Year’s resolutions worldwide.

This year, with the situation of global economic recession breeding insecurity in financial and human relations, and the recent terror attack on Mumbai waking us from the slumber to stand united, the list is also undergoing a change.

According to a recent survey conducted by a website, myGoals.com, the percentage of New Year’s resolutions, which focus on family and finance, should be going up. Similarly, Business Today’s latest list includes a new and unique resolution, “fighting terror”.

The list may be endless, as it varies from person to person and from children to grandparents. Following the Julian and Gregorian calendars based on the movement of sun, January 1 has been universally recognised as the New Year’s Day and we, like others around the globe, practice the universal tradition of making and breaking the New Year’s Resolutions. The countdown has begun.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

Published in merinews.com
Let’s begin anew by Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

It’s X’Mas Facts

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“Even before the holiday season, the 2008 recession hurt package carriers – and dearly. The U.S. Postal Service lost $2.8 billion for the year ended Sept. 30 despite $2 billion in cost-cutting measures. Total revenue was flat at $75 billion even though postal rates increased. But the volume of mail handled dropped 4.5 percent to 202.7 billion pieces, the news report said.”

Yet there is no recession when it comes to interesting facts on Christmas. The Internet had many to offer, but I selected a few that I felt was, probably, less known.

1. A Christmas club, a savings account in which a person deposits a fixed amount of money regularly to be used at Christmas for shopping, came into being around 1905

2. Christmas trees are edible. It is said that, many parts of pines, spruces, and firs can be eaten. The needles are a good source of vitamin C. Pine nuts, or pine cones, are also a good source of nutrition

3. The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby’s White Christmas

4. Santa Claus was the world’s richest fictional character, in 2006, according to Forbe’s list of the “Forbes Fictional 15”

5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a 20th century invention by the Montgomery Ward Company, operators of a chain of department stores. It was a promotional gimmick for the Christmas shoppers

6. Sixty year old James Worley with his natural white beard and big belly was mistaken for Santa Claus for years. But Disney World that he visited wanted to preserve the magic of Santa as “Santa was considered a Disney character” and so Worley was ordered to stop looking like Santa…even though it wasn’t a costume

7. Every year the US Postal Service issues US Christmas stamps. Interestingly, the theme of the stamp has often been Madonna and Child

8. Christmas Island in Indian Ocean, discovered on Christmas day in 1643, marked 50 years in 2007, since Britain detonated its first fully operational H- bomb, code-named Grapple X

9. Singing Christmas carols was banned at two major malls in Florida in 1996 as the shoppers and merchants complained that the carollers were too loud and took up too much space

10. Few modern readers realise that Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was written during a time of decline in the old Christmas traditions

Hunger-Free City

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According to a news report in DNA,  the Kozhikode city (in Kerala)  corporation  council is joining hands with the government to banish hunger within the remaining days of 2008. The project is called ‘Hunger-Free City’.

The ambitious project aims at providing free daily meal to any hungry soul residing in the city or visiting it. The food will be cooked and served at kitchen counters of  two city hospitals.

The project  is an extension of the Rs 2-a-meal scheme announced by the government in the budget.

It is also said that government plans to replicate the Kozhikode model in case the project gives desired results.

Achieving a hunger-free country would not be a distant dream, if every city finds their own solutions to serve the hungry.