A Happy New Year, I hope 2009 will be the first of the best years of your life.
Some hours ago, as the we entered 2009 here in Malaysia, it was nothing different, many people had gone to bed, the change of the year paid little significance to the people around me.
It is the Chinese New Year that is the major time for celebration, this year at the end of January.
But to me the Chinese New Year has little significance.
It is the same with most of the festive celebrations around the world. In the UK, Europe, America, Christmas is the most important time of the year, a family time. People start saving for the next Christmas as soon as the old one has finished.
Yet, in the Middle East, Turkey, Christmas has no significance at all, it means nothing. Perhaps Eid, or Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, is the most important time of the year.
As I sat here in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia as the old year passed by and 2009 entered, I was updating my SlingCatcher software, so that I can continue watching UK TV from my home in Norbiton Hall, Kingston upon Thames, England, everyone else had gone to bed. A few fire crackers were going off, but apart from that, I was alone and quiet.
I was then thinking, about friends in Bahrain and Turkey, just finishing work, for it was still only 6pm, 31st December 2008 there. In Italy it was only 5pm, I had only just finished talking to friends there about future engagements/courses. In the UK, they were probably just having their afternoon tea and biscuits at 4pm, yet on the East Coast of America, they were probably just waking up to start the last day of the 2008 year. A friend in Australia must be well asleep by then 3am.
So what is time? Is it a construct that we humans have to use to understand where we stand in our existence. Time fits nicely into our lives, as the Earth rotates around the Sun every 24 hours which we have defined as a day, and there is a 365 cycle to this rotation which we have defined as a year.
But it is all relative to where we are standing on the Earth.
What is the actual time? What is the actual day?
Have we got the figures right even then, because we have had to adjust our watches by one second on the 31st December 2008, to get them accurate again with actual time. Not only that, every four years we have to add on and extra day to get our timings right.
What about peoples idea of celebrating the New Year?
We in the Western/European world are now 2009, the Gregorian calendar starting January 1st, today.
Come the 25th January, the Chinese will celebrate Chinese New Year, which is 4707, the Year of the Ox. which is also known by its formal name of Yi Chou. 己丑.
In the Muslim world they follow the Hijri calendar, it is now 1430 AH. Their year approximately 28th December 28, 2008 (evening) to17th December 17, 2009 (evening).
It is all down to our culture, our beliefs, our up-bringing, which is so deep seated we will fight over who is right or wrong.
Everything is relative to how we see the world we live in.
Let us make the best we can our our world and the others, by respecting each others New Year.