I don’t know about y’all, but I have a hate-hate relationship with New Year’s Eve. I mean, it’s the most important night of the year. Your social life is pretty much defined by how awesome your New Year’s Eve is. I’m not even talking about the need to kiss someone at midnight–I never understood the appeal of kissing somebody random, even at my most teenage.
I’m talking about the fact that people are in Times Square and on yachts and dancing with Beautiful People and I’m hiding from Y2K in the mountains or watching Shrek 3 with my little brother or sitting in my friends’ living room by myself because they’re in bed. I’m not even kidding. Other highlights include watching Mamma Mia,1 taking an hour to drive 3 miles because my mother insisted that I would be killed by a drunk driver if I drove on a highway at 11pm on New Year’s Eve, playing catchphrase in a hotel lobby, and sitting around at a party full of people I didn’t like.
Can you see why it’s not my favorite day of the year?
I mean, you spend weeks either planning something awesome that ends up not being that awesome (underage wandering around Georgetown looking for something cool to do and ending up in a pub where the manager gave a speech from 11:58 to 12:02) or feeling lame for not having anything planned. And either way you’re miserable because your New Year’s Eve wasn’t the best night of your life. Why on earth would it be? It’s just a random day!
So last year, I decided to shout a big “Forget you” to the culture I’ve been trying to satisfy and finally just embrace the fact that I’m not a socialite or a sorority girl or even a person with friends who throw New Year’s Eve parties. You know what I am? Of course you do. I’m a Jesus freak. And I’m happy with that every other day of the year. So last year, I decided to do what made me happy on New Year’s: I went to Mass.
Oh, my kids thought I was lame. But for the first time ever, my New Year’s Eve lived up to my expectations.
I got all dressed up and headed out the door around 11 for some good prayer time before midnight Mass. There must have been a hundred people there. When we sang, it was a cappella Christmas carols and the congregation split into harmony. Father preached on the term theotokos! I was in heaven. And when half the East Coast was trying not to puke in the cab, I was savoring the Bread that has all sweetness within it and offering my life anew to the One who gave it to me.
When I was a kid, New Year’s Day was the only Holy Day of Obligation I knew about.2 I honestly thought that the Church had established it as a Holy Day so that people couldn’t get too drunk on New Year’s Eve.3 But the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God isn’t on New Year’s so that you can’t have fun–it’s so that our year is consecrated to Christ through our Lady. It’s so that you start each year off at Mass. It’s so that there’s a chance you’ll reflect on your New Year’s resolutions in the sanctuary rather than the bar.
If you’ve got a midnight Mass or an adoration chapel you can get to, might I suggest foregoing the lame evening that’s all about hype and spending your evening with the Lord instead? If you’re cool enough that your evening is usually fun,4 feel free to go out afterwards. But even the Kardashians can’t outdo the wedding feast of the Lamb. Come midnight, I’ll be surrounded by incense, my voice raised in praise of the One to whom all time belongs, preparing to receive him in the flesh. Watching a giant crystal ball drop very slowly on a television screen–without Dick Clark, no less–well, you’ll excuse me if I don’t think it compares.
P.S. Merry Christmas!!
- Which I hated [↩]
- You know that, right? That you have to go tonight or drag yourself out of bed tomorrow morning? [↩]
- Apparently I hadn’t heard of vigils…. [↩]
- I’ve got no problem with parties. Seriously, if you enjoy New Year’s, that’s awesome. Hit up a different Mass. [↩]
Oh my gosh I just laughed so hard at this. soooo true about new years eve 🙂