New Year’s Ritual Takes on New Poignancy

In ancient times, the Celtic New Year was celebrated at summer’s end, by some accounts with a bonfire using the bones of slaughtered animals. After a great feast, families would put out the fires in their hearths, then light them anew with a common flame taken from the burning bones.

It is believed the ritual was meant to create a bond among everyone in a community as they broke with the past and prepared for winter and the next year.

Times have changed in terms of rituals, but some human needs at year’s end have not. Especially this year’s end. With 2002 almost here, many people are looking to extinguish the fires of 2001 with the unusually great expectation that some of the year’s hardships will be snuffed out too.