Fireworks exploding in the sky, ringing in a new year at Kingston's waterfront.
Amina Blackwood Meeks, Contributor
MAYBE, LIKE Miss Lady, you have noticed how few people have used the phrase 'Happy New Year' to you since 2006 dawned. Once upon a time, all well into February people would still be carried by the newness momentum.
Maybe the scarcity of the greeting is a result of the fact that like Christmas, 2006 just sneaked up when it was least expected. Maybe we have all wised up to the fact that not much changes overnight, and nothing changes without effort. Maybe we are learning that any time we choose we can take time out for a period of reflection and renewal. And chances are, given our immersion into globalisation and cultural diversity, we know enough people in enough parts of the world to choose to renew ourselves and them as often as we like, and maybe that will make the difference.
SAME OLD SAME OLD
So if the New Year duppy did not bite you on January 1, meaning you are just fed up with the same old same old in the Western World and its various manifestations on Jamaica, you could wait and see how you feel March 21, New Year's Day on the traditional Persian calendar. It might even feel better to try and forget or fool yuself dat de old time Persia is different from the modern day Iran. Chu if yu ever sey yu admire something that you nat sure Uncle Sam admire, you might be in big trouble. If you don't care about that kind of trouble and you care even less bout Uncle Sam and him old-paradigm notions and philosophies, hold tight till bout the middle of July and experience what it means to celebrate New Year's Day like a Muslim.
Stay deh gwaan like yu don't know anyone of that faith. Plenty of dem in Jamaica and dem is all around dis beautiful Caribbean. You will be quite unable to take advantage of the CARICOM Single Market without bucking dem up. Miss Lady sey she personally believe that HEART Trust should include tolerance and open-mindedness as one of the skills that dem offer training in for people who want to be CARICOM-market compatible. She state that in her opinion part of that compatibility should mean that we learn to love ourselves and our traditions a little bit more, at least try to find out more about them. So she is personally biased towards a celebration of the Ethiopian New Year. It is all the way down in September and thus gives us enough time to get used to the idea. Plus disabuse ourselves of the notion that African ting and Ethiopia ting is strickly a Rasta ting and honorary-everyting-but- black black people have no interest in that.
ETHIOPIAN NEW YEAR
Ascording to how Miss Lady get it, the Ethiopian New Year falls in September at the end of the big rains. One year it did all come pan September 11 with a bright sun shining all day long creating an atmosphere of dazzling clarity and fresh clean air, jus fe spite anybody who tink sey is dem one have September 11 an it supposed to be a gloomy dedication to war and revenge. Everyting did come up bright and pretty like gold. Ethiopian children get some brand new dan-dan an dem dance through the villages and give out flowers and painted pictures to each household. Right deh so dem learn bout honour yu elders and give more dan yu expeck to receive.
'GIFT OF JEWELS'
In Ethiopia dem call de day Enkutatash meaning the 'gift of jewels'. When the famous Queen of Sheba returned from her expensive and unforgetabble visit to King Solomon, her chiefs welcomed her back by replenishing her treasury with enku or jewels. After dark on New Year's Eve people light fires outside their houses. Capleton wudda love dat. Blaze it up.
And like how she in dis out-of-may-one mood, Miss lady sey she get it on good authority that our next earliest opportunity to experience this revival inna we soul is January 29, the first day of the Chinese New Year. Every year dem dedicate it to a special animal and this is the year of the dog.
YEAR OF THE DOG
You done know sey Jamaicans on a whole don't love dogs to dat. Is like everytime a dog bark it hurt up memories bout some likkle mongrel an bigger pedigree a hunt dem dung inna bush from long time. And in contemporary times plenty walk-foot, hungry-belly people can only step aside and watch dogs a drive round inna car, a eat special diet, a go which part human beings kean go, all into hotels listed as 'dog-friendly' dat if some people ever enter dem would get charge wid tourist harassment. She sey she was at a big fancy lunch pan New Year's Day from which one guest literally flew at a certain time because, as she explained, her dog would be very upset if his feeding time passed without the feeding. Prekkeh. Nuff human beings don't even have dat phrase into dem vocabulary. Up into Paris, France, a distinguished chef just open a pastry restaurant that caters exclusively to canine creatures. Some people wudda glad fe see a pot a soup pan a street carner even once a week, even if dem haffe join long line fe get some and stand up fe drink it.
Miss Lady sey she personally does not want to reduce any dog rights but she sees the opportunity to agitate dat we treat more people like how some people treat dem dog. For some people might really begin to act like dog such dat everybody learn de farin proverb what sey, beware of a silent dog and still water.
So, whichever New Year you choose to celebrate and whenever you choose it, she sey doan badda respond to de Happy New Year greeting like sey somebody a try sell yu something when yu stone bruk, and exceed the GCT limit to boot. Just prosper and share it.
