New Years eve

Trees cover the steep hills around our dairy farm and surround the hamlet where we worshipped in a little white church with a tall steeple covering a bell. Initially that bell only rang for worship services. Outside of church times, its clanging signaled volunteers to dash to the fire station. By the time I reached my teen years, the fire station had a piercing siren to notify volunteers. To our delight, the new pastor planned to ring the bell at our first ever New Year’s Eve party for the teenagers. My brother, sister and I anticipated leaving the farm after the evening chores. We thrilled at the idea of having a party until midnight. With morning chores beginning at 4:30 we never stayed up past nine o’clock. A party meant food, fun and games. The pastor did say that sometime before midnight we would go to the chapel, kneel and pray in the new year. Listening to the party plans, including ringing the bell, my mom commented, “They would not have been able to do that years ago when the bell only rang in the middle of the night for a fire.” In the dark quiet of winter, we noisily gathered in the small fellowship hall. We ate party foods, played a game called “Who took the cookies from the cookie jar?” and then solemnly walked into the sanctuary. In the silence of quiet praying time, we reflected on the last year, addressed what needed to be made right and sought guidance for the new year. Just before midnight the designated teens stood up, walked to the foyer, watched the clock until all the hands pointed straight up and began pulling the bell’s rope. After a minute or two of pulling they let go and the sound faded. We stood up, smiled, wished each other a Happy New Year and went home to get some sleep before morning chores.After a few such parties, we moved away to bigger communities with larger churches without bells. The New Year’s Eve parties, if we had them, did not end with us in the chapel praying. We married, had children and our children had children. About 20 years ago, as a family we began meeting for New Year’s Eve. Such a difference. We spend our days and evenings together. The children play games, color, make messes, share the tasks of cooking and simply enjoy being together until we end our visit with a big New Year’s Eve party. Well we sort of do that. With so many young children, and aging adults, we do not stay up until the clocks hit midnight. Instead, about eight or nine o’clock we turn on the TV to a station featuring a city three or four time zones away. As it nears midnight in that distant time zone and the children’s bedtime in our time zone, we pull out party hats, noise makers and poppers. As the countdown reaches zero, we make our noise and wish each other a Happy New Year. The little ones know it’s bedtime and trundle off to sleep. We turn down the lights. The adults break up into small groups for quiet conversations. A few go to bed long before midnight. Some of the sleepers rouse around midnight, blink wearily, wish all a Happy New Year and fall back into bed. Whether energetic and noisy or quiet and reverential, at the stroke of midnight in a few days it will be the New Year everywhere. That signals the end of the party season and time to settle back into daily routines for another year.