Happy New Year!

New Year, at least for the planet. The world is now resting in peace. A new beginning awaits around the corner. Its a New Year.

In light of it being a new year and a time of fresh beginnings, I have decided to start fresh as well. I have relieved the children of the punishments they suffered so hard under this past year and let them start fresh. I'm sure they will be back in the hole within a few weeks - its a good thing the new year comes around once a year.

Someone once asked why November first is the New Year...

Short story - Nov 1 is the New Year because Oct 31st is the last day of the year!

Longer story, but not too long - Back in the olden days before religions began to take over the world and change calendars and to set things up the way they are - with arbitrary dates signifying not much of anything - the year was thought to begin at about this time of year - our early November - because that is the time when the earth is no longer living (not necessarily dead - just not really living, kinda like sleeping); the trees are losing their leaves, the ground doesn't produce crops - the planet slumbers. Some took the time between Nov 1 and Yule as a "time out of time" where the year ended at Samhain (Oct 31) and the year didn't begin until Yule. The time in between those times was thought to be magical and "a time out of time." But, I think that that "time out of time" is really more of a hibernation, the time when the world rests and prepares for the next year, where it will produce and live and gather itself together until it goes back to sleep.