January being the beginning of our year has always frustrated me to no end. There's nothing about January that screams 'new beginning'. It's cold, dark, depressing, Christmas having been over for a whole week, and now we're supposed to celebrate another year fading away during a boring, lifeless month of dreary existence.
I've always been a little partial to May. May is when we shrug off winter and emerge from our cocoon-like existences to go back outside and feel the sun on our face. For many, it makes sense that the year begins in May. Life renewed. New beginnings.
But I'll maintain that for our culture, September is the real start of the year. September means back to school, for one. The return of structure and purpose, a counterpoint to lazy, driftless days of summer. New clothes, new tools, new ideas, new classes.
For my family, quite often September would also mean brand new houses in new towns with new schools and new friends. Having moved around a lot as the son of an Air Force officer, August was always friendless and meant the tedious chores of unpacking and quickly familiarizing yourself with the new channels in a new town before the new TV season started.
That's something that's sort of an indicator of a bygone era. As adults in 2012 we do have new shows in a new TV season in September. But the ever more popular cable channels are coming up with off-season programming, forcing the major networks to come up with off-season programming, and the whole process is de-valuing the idea of a new season of TV shows actually starting in September. Plus, there's nothing I'm really looking forward to on today's TV anyway.
BUT... as a kid in the 1970's/1980's September's new season of TV shows always brought with it a glorious new season of Saturday morning cartoons. That was something to look forward to that was almost as powerful as Christmas morning.
The end of the year should be August. As we return from our various vacations and summer camps and say goodbye to the pool and wrap up the traditional things that we use to enjoy summer. It feels like a proper ending. A real change. And saying goodbye to these things of summer, flip-flops and no school and pools and Grandmom visits, it always feels like we'll go a whole year before seeing these things again.
September feels like birth. With the slowly changing climate, enabling you to wear short sleeve shirts for the start of the school year before October forces the long sleeves, the trees haven't quite started to change but the air is different, and camping is forced into a weekend container. There is a change. December and January bleed together with the garish interruption of the year's harshest Holiday. But August to September, that is the OCD persons New Year's Eve.
Thanks,
DCD
September is the start of our cultural year, but there are many cultures on planet Earth! I would go with Mother Nature telling us when the year begins anew, with flowers blooming and colder temps giving way to warmer days. You mentioned May but I would go a little earlier, like March or April. May is the 5th month already! We are all in our shorts by then.
ReplyDeleteLOVE LOVE LOVE that Kirby Fantastic Four shirt by the way!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have always felt this way! It was reinforced by the start of parenthood in the month of Sept. I have always wondered how people see the calendar year in their minds. I see it as a circle w/ Sept. at the top, the beginning. Dixiegirl in VT
ReplyDelete(Robotic voice) This does not compute! I have lived this way my whole life. January is the new year. That's what I've been told. I must believe this and assimilate, assimilate, assimilate... Must be like the rest of the world. This blog is incorrect. Rebellious behavior must be punished!!!
ReplyDeleteMatt
How could you forget one of the biggest events that starts in September ... Football?!?! Oh, wait, never mind. Forgot who I was asking there for a second.
ReplyDelete