By MURPHY BROWNE (Abena Agbetu)
Happy New Year 2025.
In North America we said goodbye to 2024 at midnight on December 31, 2024. By then, some other countries were already hours into the new year, 2025.
The New Year was first celebrated in the South Pacific Island states of Samoa and Christmas Island/Kiribati. Australians and New Zealanders were next in welcoming 2025. They were followed by several Asian countries, including Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Then 2025 was welcomed in the Middle East and Europe before moving on to countries on the African continent including Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Somalia.
The Americas (Central America, North America, South America) and the Caribbean islands were next.
American Samoa was the last country to ring in the New Year 2025.
As I watched the famous “ball drop” at midnight on December 31, 2024, a song from my childhood came to mind. It was a song that I had heard sung by older relatives. Now, in 2025, my siblings, cousins and I are those older relatives.
I remember watching some “old people” weeping as they sang:
“Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?”
As an adult I learned the meaning of the words and the sentiment. My elderly relatives were remembering their elderly relatives who had transitioned to the ancestral realm. They were also moving forward into the new year while looking back at lessons learned from the old year, like the Sankofa bird from the Ghanaian Adinkra symbols.
The New Year is a time of excitement and joy as most people welcome the start of a new calendar year. It is a time to reflect on the past, set new goals and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead. Many people make resolutions to learn from the year past in an attempt to improve their lives in various ways during the new year.
The New Year brings hope, joy and excitement as youth and adults around the world bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new year.
There are various traditions observed to welcome the New Year. The way people celebrate the New Year varies across cultures. In the United States, people gather to watch – or watch on television – the “Times Square Ball Drop”. More than a million people gathered in Times Square to ring in 2025.
The tradition of gathering at Times Square in New York City to watch the popular “ball drop” began on December 31, 1907, to welcome the year 1908. On December 31, 2024, the revelers who gathered in Times Square were following a 117-year tradition as they watched the 5,443-kilogram (12,000 pound) ball descend at the stroke of midnight to welcome 2025.
My New Year’s tradition is more than 117 years old. My ancestors traditionally welcomed the New Year with a pot of cook-up rice. I continue that tradition that began at least 217 years ago when the British abolished the slave trade on March 25, 1807. In what was then British Guiana (now the Co-operative Republic of Guyana), my enslaved African ancestors knew that eventual freedom from chattel slavery was possible. Although complete freedom was not a reality until August 1, 1838, the enslaved Africans lived in hope and celebrated the New Year by making a pot of cook-up rice with black-eye peas to welcome a new year of life.
Guyanese cook-up rice is not rice-and-peas, peas-and-rice or jollof rice. I have had some folks try to describe cook-up rice in those terms. Guyanese cook-up rice is a one-pot rice dish that traditionally incorporates various meats with black-eye peas, simmered in coconut milk. Some Guyanese include callaloo (spinach) in their pot of cook-up rice. I prefer using channa (chickpeas) instead of black-eye peas.
Many of my old fashioned/traditional relatives still use black-eye peas in their cook-up rice.
January 1, 2025, was also the last day of Kwanzaa for the celebrants of the seven-day (December 26 to January 1) Pan-African celebration of African family values, culture and history. Faith/Imani, is the last Kwanzaa principle, celebrated on the first day of January.
On that first day of January, remembering that the faith our ancestors had in their humanity was important for their survival during slavery and colonization also encourages our faith.
Our faith encourages us to look forward to the future with optimism and joy.
Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a year filled with wellness, happiness and prosperity.
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