Happy New Year?

As the digits turned from 2025 to 2026, I saw post after post denying the new year. These posts insisted that this ‘isn’t the true new year’. They argued that the Gregorian calendar that most of the world uses is made up, arbitrary, and starts in the dark of winter which is not the correct time for a new year. These posts pointed out that resetting the year in the dark of winter doesn’t make sense. It is arbitrary. It is wrong. The first day of spring is the ‘true’ new year.

And yes. I agree. I have said the exact same thing myself. I have said it is strange to have a new year start in the dead of winter when nature and the world are hibernating. I have aligned my personal annual rhythm to hibernate and do less in winter, and to plant seeds of intention in spring. I do agree with this line of thinking.

But also.

Why not reset? Why not restart? Why not use this quiet, dark, winter time to turn the page?

I was raised in Judaism, in which there are four new years. The New Year for Kings and Festivals, the New Year for Animal Tithes, the New Year for Years (Also known as Rosh Hashanah, when the year number ticks one greater), and the New Year for the Trees. (I love that the trees have their own new year. It’s adorable.)

So why can’t we have more than one new year?

I, personally, observe several new years. I observe the new year on December 31st, Lunar New Year (falling on Feb 17th in 2026), the astrological new year on the Spring Equinox (March 20th), and I observe a personal new year on my birthday in September.

Any day. Any moment can be a new year.

Why not take the opportunity to reset every chance we get? We can use arbitrary calendar days to re-motivate ourselves, to re-calibrate ourselves. To zoom out from the day to day life that we are caught in and see the bigger picture. I find it helps to do this on a regular basis. I love using the various new years and different themes/times of year for a chance to zoom out.

I like the Gregorian new year on Dec 31st. I use the quiet, winter, hibernating time to go into my internal world. I use this new year to be in the liminal space of dreams and imagination. The winter has no urgency and I can take my time to imagine what the new year can offer. I calculate my tarot card of the year. I choose a word of the year. I journal. I explore. I rest. I take stock. I allow my mind to wander around important questions: How do I want to feel in this new year? What do I want to put out into the world? What do I want to continue from last year? What do I want to leave behind in the last year? What are the signs, signals, themes that I see for the new year? What ideas and concepts do I want to work with in this coming year?

The quiet, dark of winter is perfect for this type of reflective, slow work.

The result of that work is that when I get to the astrological new year, the first day of spring, I am ready. I know exactly what seeds I want to plant in my life, in my garden, and I begin with clarity. Spring is always for beginnings, for doing things. By spending the calendar new year putting all this down, then I know exactly what I want to do when my hibernation ends. I celebrate the astrological new year by getting up and going. By getting started. The astrological new year for me is the new year of starts, beginnings, and doing things.

In conjunction with the winter exploration of themes and new year resetting, I enjoy following the Lunar calendar and following the tradition of the changing animal and element. I find it fascinating to learn and observe the themes set out in the Chinese zodiac. Each year I find the new animal and element has something to teach me, and I enjoy observing the theme through the year.

Finally, my birthday is a personal new year. My birthday is late summer, not quite fall. This gives me a chance to reflect before the end of the calendar year. Am I going in the direction that I want to be going? How do I want to close out this year? I also use my birthday to reconnect with my people. I use the guise of my birthday to get together with all my closest people. I drag it out. I schedule personal time with each person who is part of my chosen family. I take the time to celebrate and connect with them. Often life gets so busy, so having this occasion to pull people in helps me get extra time with the people who matter to me.

Ritualizing these arbitrary days on the calendar over years has been an enriching experience. Year after year I have delved deeper into the traditions and habits and marking of these occasions. I have made them more and more my own. The result being that I get so much out of them when they pop up on the calendar.

The thing is, though, that these are just random dates. There are no limits to how many times we can or should restart in a year. We can restart as much as we want. Restarting on these dates is important to me. But that doesn’t mean that these are the only days when one can or should restart. We can stop, pause, re-calibrate, change directions, and celebrate whenever we want. Even on a random Thursday. I get what these posts were saying about the so-called true new year. That winter is for rest. But also, new year can be whatever we need it to be and whenever we want it to be.