Happy New Year

It’s always seemed to me that this day, the first day of school, is a more natural beginning to the year than January 1st is.  The real new year comes at a low point for me.  The winter is still deep and dark, nothing in nature changes at that time, the kids go back after winter break to the same schedule they had before and so do I.  September though, the summer has ended, there’s a big change in the weather, in expectations, in the routine… everything changes in September. The first day of school marks the end of the lazy, relaxed summer routine, where everyone can stay up late if they want, get up late if they want, where.. if you’re a mum with a home office, there’s little difference between a Saturday and a Wednesday.  Come September, there’s the rebirth of the weekend, the rebirth of setting alarms to get up on time, and of getting the laundry done since suddenly nobody can wear the same pants four days in a row without social stigma. (Except me.  I’m a writer.  I’m exempt from a lot of social conventions. You wouldn’t believe how unkempt we can be before people think we’re falling off the curve.)  September is, for anyone with school aged kids, the month of obvious movement, advancement and comforting structure. Homework, meals at a specific time.. curfews and lessons.

I love the first day of school, and not just because I’m alone in my office. It makes me want to start everything new, tidy the house up, make everything organized, buy a new raft of post-its and make schedules and lists. 
It’s a fresh start.   Happy New Year.

157 thoughts on “Happy New Year

  1. My feelings exactly. Even with grown children. I want to change my life, too, when this time comes around. Off to yoga, after a summer’s break…

  2. I know exactly what you mean about the “real” new year coming at a low point! It’s not just dark, but grey and wet and dark! I applaud your fresh start and wish you a happy new year. 😉

  3. Wise words — us moms get our “normal” (what ever that really is) routines back.
    But at my house, the Jewish New Year begins tomorrow at sundown … very early this year. I should be cooking and baking right now … but everyone in the world should have a sweet year, one filled with good health and peace.

  4. I agree, new school year always seems more real to me. New shiny school supplies, new faces around the department, new students making unreasonable demands on my time…

  5. Yes, exactly how I feel! 3 kids went back to middle and high school today and I’m happy to have the quiet house to myself for the day. It feels like a fresh start.

  6. My sentiments exactly. After waking up at 4:30 this am to a driving rain and hemming and hawing for 45 minutes, I dragged my lazy butt out of bed for the 6 am power yoga class. I figured if the kids are starting a new year, I might as well try for something of a new year’s resolution of morning work outs.
    My kid moaned at me when I got home with doughnuts and a sweaty smile.

  7. And of course for those of us who ARE students, the New Year means a goodbye to our expansive stretches of knitting time… and hello to expansive stretches of guilt-ridden knitting time which really ought to be essay-writing time.

  8. I was feeling exactly that way this morning, but with a little touch of sadness, because this time around I sent my “baby” off to her first day of high school. I always feel the passage of time so strongly this time of year. It truly feels like a new beginning each Fall.

  9. When I first saw the “Happy New Year,” I thought you were making a reference to Rosh Hashana. No, you just measure time the same way I do. My reasons are unrelated to having school-age kids at home, though; mine has been out of the house for 15 years.
    The whole country takes a three day weekend, I have a birthday, and school starts. I’m talking *my* school starts. Even though I haven’t been in a classroom since ’91, I still see the beginning of the school year as the start of everything.

  10. I graduated college last December and this is my first year as a working adult and I have to admit that I don’t know how people do it! I just want to crawl back on the school bus and head off into a new year filled with excitement and learning!!
    Instead I’m at my desk, bored to tears and reading your archives (I’m in July of ’09) from the beginning and I’m going to be totally lost once I catch up completely!! I’ll have to find someone else to stalk and that’s just plain sad!

  11. I agree. Jewish New Year coming, a snap in the air (even in northern California), a 3-day rest: (the end of the fiscal year winding down – for us U.S. Gov’t workers). It’s a new start! Thank you.

  12. YES! I work at a university library, and my only child started his senior year in high school today, so I have them coming and going, in a sense.
    But it is truly a beginning, because the season starts to change, and the promise of cooler weather means it’s easier to knit!

  13. Happy New Year!
    Hope you find an appropriate project for the new Season.
    And Happy Rosh Hashana to many people, apparently!

  14. Ah – yes! I remember it so well! Aren’t we all indoctrinated into this routine from the time we are 4 or 5 years old? Playtime is over and it’s time to move on with things. We should be all rested up and happy from a long summer break, ready to take on the coming days of fall and winter.
    Frankly, I’m not so sure about that rested up thing – but it definately feels like a time to begin things. Think I’ll go start a new shawl.

  15. Another believer – this has always been my “new year”, and I’ve really been looking forward to it this year.

  16. Enjoy those “school” years while they last, the next thing you know you will have forgotten all about the start of school. All the kids have flown out of the nest.

  17. I couldn’t agree more! It’s really a moment of change in every way, and very much still the “new year” for me, even though I’ve been out of school for several years now, and have no children of my own.

  18. You need to move to Australia! Jan 1st is Summer, school goes back end of January, early February and winters are never really that cold.
    Downside is, unless you live a long way south, you dont have much need of woolens!

  19. I agree with you too. This time of year definitely feels like the start of something whereas January 1 just feels arbitrary.

  20. The January new year recognizes the rebirth of the light, growing so slowly you can hardly see it, but growing nonetheless. I treasure the passing of the winter solstice, the knowledge that, in the midst of the dark and cold, things are growing.
    But I can definitely get behind the rebirth of orderly life, not to mention my having free time, associated with the return to school (my kids already did). To every season its own festival, I say, and yarn all around. (Oh! And September means the return of knitting group! Yay!)

  21. A coworker of mine told me last week, “Every year when this time of year rolls around I think to myself: I’m SO glad I’m not in school anymore.” She’s 32 and still glad to be out of high school.

  22. I SO agree (although New Year’s here in Texas is actually quite lovely)! THIS is really the start of the year!

  23. Happy new school year! Here, the squirrels go into hormonal overdrive to eat before the long winter–which never comes, so you see these obese rodents the size of small cats trying to keep their balance on the telephone wires overhead.

  24. Totally understand how you feel. My boyfriend works at a university, so in a couple of weeks its all systems go with new intake to deal with etc (this usually means a new batch of germs and him having bad flu and passing it on to me)and this september is my last year as a student at the same university but as I am hoping to do teacher training after it seems this new year in the middle of the year will be an ongoing thing for us.

  25. It’s the New Year down in Az too. We have the monsoon (usually every year, but sometimes it’s a bit of a dud) starting in July. The Tohonon O’odham tradition is that the New Year starts when the rains come. So ours started mid-July.
    Happy New Year!

  26. I feel the same way!!! Not only the start of school but I also go back to work after being off all summer. I also want to do more things around the house, nest and prepare for winter. lol. I love summer but I look forward to fall and some structure in my life. I think I need to to recover from the summer we have.

  27. Here in AZ, school started on August 10 and it won’t get cool for another six weeks. (Our high tomorrow is supposed to only be 94 (34C) and I’m positively giddy about the cold-snap.)
    I agree about the new year thing, though – I’ve always felt the urge to make resolutions and reorganize in the fall.

  28. I agree. September is such a beautiful month. Now is the time to really get working on my Christmas projects> 🙂

  29. “I’d like to buy you a bouquet of freshly-sharpened pencils” in honor of September is one of my favorite lines from You’ve Got Mail.

  30. You must be on the lunar calendar too. The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShana, begins at sundown on September 8 and goes through sundown on September 10. Please accept my best wishes for a joyous and prosperous 5771.
    L’Shana Tova to all.

  31. There are many new year’s days in each calendar year. Varying religions have their own; there are natural ones such as the start of summer or the start of school or the start of a new job and, of course, there’s your birthday. I’ve always thought of time as a spiral with markers along the way – traditional ones such as Christmas and personal ones such as birthdays. And they all come to mean non-traditional things. Thanksgiving (Canadian) = put on winter tyres. Fall fair = get moving on making Christmas gifts. So, here’s to fall and our own inner calendar.

  32. Happy New Year Stephanie! You always sum things up so well. This is exactly the way I feel on my birthday (in the summer). That’s when I feel the need for New Year’s resolutions (which I am loathe to think about for some reason during the holidays).

  33. Ha.. tidying the house. I celebrate with a WARM cup of coffee and glass/bottle of wine that night after bed time

  34. I just started my second year of retirement, and going-back-to-school still feels like New Year to me!
    Think I’ll go buy some notebooks and pencils.

  35. Before kids, I was a teacher. Which means the first day of school has ALWAYS been the new year for me. My husband is also a teacher. He started today. I did a lot of organizing of drawers, and am planning my cleaning activities for when the kids go back tomorrow.

  36. i believe the beginning of the year used to be in march.
    which meant it used to begin with the beginning of spring.
    i don’t know where i’m going with this.
    it’s just a weird fact from the back of my brain
    one that may or may not be true.

  37. Like many of your other reader/commenters, I too am Jewish and completely agree with you that this is a good time for a new year. I’m going home to my parents house in upstate NY for some jewish soul food and because I am required to show off our new little baby.

  38. Is this a justification for abandoning current knitting projects and starting a new one? Coz if it isn’t for you, it sure as hell will be for me. Thank you.

  39. Well said. Fresh starts and hopes for good school year. Returning to a morning schedule makes me cranky, although I got more knitting done on the first two days of school than I did all summer.

  40. As I understand it, the Roman calendar started with March 1st (just before the start of Spring, a natural beginning)–which is why February is the shortest month … it came last and just got the days the other months left to it. But when we transferred to the Christian calendar (Gregorian, I believe), they decided to move the end of year to December, to be closer to Christmas (and those nasty, pagan, Winter celebrations).

  41. As someone who sits on the other side of the desk this year (yay?), I agree that the start of the school year is monumental. Monumental in the escalation of the pace of life (how many lectures do I need to prep by tomorrow? And do all that other stuff in my job description?). Monumental in the number of people for which I am responsible (322 of the best, brightest freshmen). Monumental in my expectations for myself (teach well, research well, and be an awesome colleague). Hand me that pack of post its. This is gonna take a few lists!

  42. I love the 1st day of school too! Even though my kids are grown, I still love that back-to-school feeling and knowing that even though it might still be warm, summer is really over. Bring on Fall . . . my favorite season!

  43. Happy New Year to you too, Stephanie! Though, if you were a teacher like me, you would be skeptical on the “happy” part. Besides, once school starts, the knitting time grows shorter and shorter… sigh. Oh well… Just 277 days to the next summer holidays, after all, if you do not count in the Finals.

  44. My New Year was last week. I sent the child off to school without a hitch only to get caught in traffic on the way to work. I know it’s back to school and the New Year has begun when I can’t get to work on time. It’s ok, I think they understand. :o) Sock weather is approaching, new blankets on the horizon and a few hats to share. So exciting. Bring on the Autumn knitting.

  45. This is the first August/September since 1989 that hasn’t involved sending a child off to school or university. My younger graduated in May. But, he is coming back to California on Thursday to start his job hunt in earnest. But my husband and I are in the midst of a major decluttering project. So our year is starting.

  46. No children going off to school today, but I still baked my favorite “first day of school” cookies, cleaned the cupboards, started a new pair of mittens, did laundry and cleaned my sewing room..
    I love this time of year..Happy New Year to you

  47. I am right there with you! I love the structure the school year brings- even though I hate the waking up hour associated with it. I also feel that the begining of the year is now and have the need to clean things up. Over the weekend I moved all the furniture, mopped, cleared out, reorganized cupboards, purged bookshelves and dresser drawers…cleaned out my disgusting car and am still feeling the need to ‘spring clean’.

  48. Back in the 1960s there was a columnist in the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch who claimed, as you do, that the true New Year was in September, not January, for all the reasons you enumerate above. My friend and I always celebrate the first day of school with lunch out, and I have just returned from our 17th annual lunch. We call it our “Weep ‘n’ Eat” because when the kids were little, the first day of school always made us cry–they were so little and we were so unready to part from them. We got over that pretty quickly though, and the first day of school, which is always the day after Labor Day here, is cause for celebration, even now when the kids are in college and leave in the middle of August. We plan to do this when we have grandchildren too!

  49. The Season of New Pencils. I have always followed the academic calendar; my day-planner starts with August. Fall is my favorite season, it’s when I get energized to finish projects and make lists of what to do next. I have read research that claims resolutions made in the fall are more likely to be kept than those made in January.

  50. How did you know I was cleaning today??
    I have 3 times during the year to start over — the ordinary January 1 (although I’m totally in agreement with you), April — my birthday month, and September — the weather today is extraordinary and full of possibility.

  51. With four daughters in school this year, four schedules, countless teachers, so many signatures required . . . I feel like I don’t know whether I’m coming or going most days – I miss the summer and I don’t even like hot weather!!

  52. The fall and the spring are the two seasons when I start the most projects (not just knitting). They are for me the times with change most filling the air.

  53. Several years ago, our local paper published a recipe called “First Day of School Vermont Apple Pie”. It is a keeper! Paula Red Apples or Macintosh are available at this time of year, just when you are craving a new apple. I started a tradition of making the pie on the first day of school and look forward to it every year. Buttery crust, brushed with milk and sugar. The house smells of cinnamon and apples…Last week, on our first day of school, the temperature hit 92F….difficult day for baking, but the pie tasted great nonetheless.

  54. I so get September as the start of the year. I grew up with both parents being teachers. Summer for us was 6 weeks of travel and no work for 2 months. My whole sense of time was warped when I got married and my husband went to work in July! When my boys started school I finally felt in control again – and then in a flash they were graduated and I was confused again. I knew I had it together – finally – when I asked this morning, did the kids go back to school today? Hurray for September – I have been longing for the return of turtleneck-sweater season!

  55. We haven’t had children starting school in September for a couple of years now and even before that, school begins the first week of August around here. So the yearly schedule and new year thing here is whacky. But, I love the promise of fall and cooler weather that September brings.

  56. I’ve always felt that the new year should be the first of September (or the first day of school, however you want to figure it). It feels like a new year with fall coming, cooler weather and canning almost over, or thereabouts.
    Happy New Year to you!

  57. Fall, because of the start of the school year, and spring, because of my birthday, always seem like more natural “New Year’s” than January. The change of the weather, the growth or harvest of nature, whatever it is I always feel like they are times of the year when I get a chance to start fresh for another 6 months. To gear up for the coming of summer in the spring and the activities and projects that can be enjoyed in the warmer months after the dead of winter. And to get back to routine and “nest” in the fall when I start to look forward to things like baking and knitting…things I rarely do in the hot of the Iowa summer.
    With that said…I’m off to retrieve my little elementary schoolers to find out how their day went!

  58. Totally agree with you on the NEW YEAR! And now, one of your contributors has me craving an apple pie, too!

  59. Amen, sister!!! DH and I were just saying the same thing while at lunch today. It seems that the sun has taken a course change and is now the sun of Autumn and change. The light is different and it feels like a new beginning.

  60. Happy New Year from Israel, where tomorrow we celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. As you post goes to show, those ancient jews sure knew when to start their year. Here’s to new beginnings!

  61. Happy New Year.
    Though as to the one in January maybe all of your loyal following should send you and Joe to somewhere South of the Equator. After all it’s high summer there.
    Just a thought. Possible a New Zealand sheep ranch might amuse. (As long as we have money set aside for the seat the fleeces will need.)
    Have a great day, in your “re”newly quiet office.

  62. I love the first day of the New (School) Year as well. I love the Staples commercial (maybe it’s Office Depot) where the Dad and the kids are in the store and the song playing is “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. They show that commercial every August and it hasn’t gotten old yet! Also love your new Tina-dyed orange. I may have to get me some…

  63. I feel exactly the same way! I am pouring over the rec. centre bulletin looking for new classes to take- the weather is changing- the leaves are starting to turn and I all of a sudden want to do change my routine.

  64. I am so with you, even though we started two weeks ago and have had two football games already. It is like a new start, the nights are cooler, the days shorter, time to get the house ready for the winter.
    And I spent my Labor Day doing nothing. I got involved in a knitting project and just enjoyed my time knitting. Oh well, there’s always next weekend.

  65. As the daughter of a teacher and a teacher myself, I know for sure that September is the new year. 🙂

  66. I so agree: the school year marks the beginning of a year. As a retired teacher who can now travel in September, I spent today, celebrating 36 years married to my best friend, traveling to all places Dali in Spain. Ole!

  67. Yeah, I used to think I couldn’t wear the same pants two days in a row. Now? Ha! I wear the same pants all week. Who’s going to try and stop me?

  68. Since I married on August 31st,I’ve felt that September 1 was the beginning of my fiscal year, but w/school starting the day after the American Labor Day, it has shifted and I share your feelings about it. Happy School Year!!

  69. Actually, the old new year started April 1st. Which is why we have April Fools day. For the “fools” who kept celebrating that as New Years, after the new date of January 1st was declaired as the start of the new year.
    Now you know “the rest of the story.”
    Have a good day!

  70. Yes, exactly! I often wish people Happy New Year before heading off for Labor Day weekend or when just getting back to work. It really is our cultural New Year.

  71. September is my favorite month too… but the only downside I see to my “new year” is that it always gives me a serious case of Startitis.. I’m seriously fighting the urge to cast on 5 new things right now…

  72. You are so right, I’m in school and we always link the different years with school. We’d be talking and say; “Remember so and so from last year?” and we’d be talking about just a few months before.
    Happy New Year to you too.

  73. It’s been awhile since I had kids in school or worked on a school board but it’s the time for cozy, familiar things again…… love apple pie and woolies and fires in the hearth 🙂

  74. Would you believe that I ran out to the store last night and bought Post-Its for the very same reason? nah. probably not. but I did.

  75. I have a teacher friend that makes all her “new year’s resolutions” at the beginning of the school year, rather than on January 1st. It really made sense to me.

  76. Steph, I feel just that way! Fall is the beginning no matter what the calendar says. It’s the time of come home early, plaid skirts and stars out before bed. I live for autumn. Everything else is pretend.

  77. happy new year to you too! even though i don’t have kids, i needed to hear this for myself since this is the last day of my mini-vacation. it’s been a great summer here in northern NJ!

  78. “It’s the Most Wonderful Day of the Year”. We sing that song to our boys on the first day of school every year!! They are now 20 & 15! Love to torment them! 🙂

  79. You got it Stephanie! As a former H.S. English teacher I find this time of year so fresh and new! I am very excited for the return of school tomorrow and with it the schedule. Ahhhh! RELIEF from summer! 😉

  80. You need some houseplants. Then you’ll see the change start at the solstice.
    All my children are grown and gone, and my life no longer revolves around their days, so while September used to feel like the New Year to me, it no longer does. I outgrew that when my children did.

  81. Couldn’t agree more. I had an excellent day…I was able to do a task for several minutes in a row without interruption! I love the first day of school.

  82. I was just explaining this to a friend this weekend. The beginning of the school year is my new year. I even set my goals for the coming year.

  83. Couldn’t have said it better myself! As I prepared to start this school year (for the first time as a teacher rather than a student!), I spent the appropriately grey, rainy weekend reorganizing my apartment, cleaning, folding my new school clothes and pondering pack lunches. I love this time of year — life has nothing but potential on the first day of school. Happy New Year!

  84. With one small child returning to (part-time) daycare and another beginning, and also being a work-at-home (part-time) mom, this is the first year I’ve experienced this feeling but, hoo boy, it’s with a vengeance. Happy New Year!

  85. Maybe you’re really Jewish? The Jewish New Year begins tomorrow evening; alas, no knitting for a couple of days. Hope you have a sweet year, with health and happiness for you and your family.

  86. Happy New Year indeed. Tomorrow night begins the Jewish New Year, and like you I have always felt the turn in the year at this time; autumn, harvest = end. New school year, etc… Beginning. Shana Tova Umesuka (have a sweet new year)!

  87. As soon as I walked in the door after dropping my son off at school, I asked my husband “Do you here it?”. “Here what?” he asked. “The cheer of every parent in the Portland School District.” I told him. I guess I could hear Toronto too and everywhere in between. Happy New Year.

  88. I’ve always felt that way too – the summer is wonderful but I look towards to fall and getting back to more of a schedule. Even though my kids are home still during the day(homeschool – well, except the one that’s off to college now) it’s a return to routine.

  89. Absolutely agree. went out yesterday and bought a new calendar to attempt better organization of 2 teens, one toddler, work, house, and make more time for knitting. As the daughter of 2 school teachers, Labor Day is always the start for me. I think I will always start my new calendar in the fall, as there’s too much going on in December to be switching then. Now I have lovely quo vadis pages to fill up through next summer!
    ps absolutely love those last socks…

  90. I so agree with you. I’ve always looked at this time of year as a begining rather than an end. It’s when I’ve bought most of my new cars, and it’s when I’ve started a new job and a new life. I love this time of year with the change in weather, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. It’s truely a wonderful time of year!

  91. I’ve always thought my children (and everyone elses) were a year older on the first day of school. As a teacher, I still buy a few new school supplies to celebrate. Autumn makes me feel like drawing in, being closer to home, and getting out the wool for knitting.

  92. I needed your Happy New Year wish about two weeks ago. Maybe if I had the start of this school year would have gone smoother. Both my daughter, starting 3rd grade, and myself, teaching 2nd grade, had a very rough first two weeks of school. Here’s to the next 33 weeks being much better. I’m counting today as my new year too!

  93. Eventhough I was not able to take my kids to school this morning I did a little happy dance while at work. I have the day off tomorrow and plan to enjoy every moment of having a quite house. I plan to do a little house work in the AM so I can reward myself in the afternoon with knitting and a DVR full of MY shows to catch up on.

  94. Our year down here makes a lot more sense- the school year starts at the end of Jan, finishes in Dec, we start and end the year in Summer (which means fabulous NYE outfits)
    so clearly the world was populated upside down!

  95. I’ve had U2’s “Beautiful Day” running through my head all day…. my boys start back to school tomorrow with my older tween (12 yo boys are EVIL) having football after school so he won’t be home until 5…. which will give me time to spend one on one with my 10 yo son who wants to learn to knit 🙂

  96. I so agree…I have been watching the increasing skitters of leaves these last few days. The today, the air was twinkling with them, because today there are soft winds – definitely not summer winds either. And, I was just looking up at the first stars against butterfly blue, through cirrus clouds. Autumn is so very wonderful.

  97. Happy new year to you, Steph. I relish the arrival of September: no more blistering hot days, a change in the city’s pulse as school begins, and the bloom of color as the greenery changes. It’s a time to start something new, to learn something different, no matter your age.

  98. And I thought it was just me! I had absolutely no reason to start “spring housecleaning” today. (Something I’ve been threatening to do for months.)
    How long does it last – the feeling of wanting “to start everything new, tidy the house up, make everything organized …”?
    My fingers are crossed for at least a week’s worth.

  99. Ahh Stephanie. This is an easy one. You’re going back to your Celtic roots and wanting to celebrate Samhain (summer’s end), The Celtic New Year.
    It’s turned into Halloween and is in Oct because in Europe that is the Harvest Month (as proven by Oktoberfest). But in Canada …. Fall is already here. My garden is nearing it’s end, the apples are ripe and frost is just around the corner as the nights cool off. It’s the end of the agricultural year. And for our American friends, please remember that our Thanksgiving is mid-Oct. when our growing season is over.

  100. Unless you live Down Under. Then the summer holiday is December-January, and the new school year is February 🙂

  101. My husband and I agree with you, with the added benefit that where we are down South, September also marks the start of Spring. And this year is not different, with us recommitting to each other.

  102. I just can’t resist pointing out that to lots of people (okay, not lots, some. i.e., Jewish folks) think the real New Year is now. Starting this Wednesday night in fact. 🙂 But I understand you not knowing, since it seems only in NYC are people other than Jewish ones aware of this holiday. The public schools even get days off for it. Just another reason to love New York. Now if we could just get paid holidays for Ramadan. . . .

  103. I have always loved the start of school, the beginning of Fall, my favourite season. I can dig out the cosy sweaters and get out my wooly socks (particularly here in Scotland where the socks have been out for a week already). It’s a cosy time and makes more sense to do Fall cleaning than Spring cleaning.

  104. Like many others leaving comments, I will be observing the Jewish New Year of 5771, starting at sundown tonight. We will attend services and pray for a year of good health, great happiness and peace for everyone. May this year have all of those things plus lots of rich, yarny sweetness for you, Stephanie!

  105. Our schools actually started in August – both for our daughter who is a high school junior, and for the university where my husband teaches. I know what you mean, though our timing varies.
    Too funny – before I wrote this I searched the page to see if anyone else had written about the Jewish New Year beginning on Wednesday evening (tonight at this point) and of course there were several.
    But the Jewish calendar actually has two beginning points (depending on which ancient counting one goes by) though this is the spiritual one that begins the preparation for the ‘religious’ season which has several more holidays in short order.
    The Jewish use of the lunar calendar includes corrections so that the holidays don’t get too far out of sync with the seasons, since it began as an agrarian society. This is about as early as this holiday will get, and next year it will fall at the end of September – about as late as it gets. (This is in contrast to the Muslim use of the lunar calendar which can have Ramadan progress so it can fall at any time of year.)
    So ‘Shanah Tovah’ (which means ‘year good’) to you! Try the traditional challah bread with honey or that treat reserved for this holiday – apple slices dipped in honey – all intended to look forward to a sweet year.

  106. That is how I have always felt and I have no children plus it has been an embarrassingly long time since I have attended any school myself!

  107. No, not just Jewish people and/or people in NYC are aware of the Jewish New Year. It was my first thought when I saw the “Happy New Year” title as well, and I’m neither Jewish nor a New Yorker (and while I wish I’d been born Jewish, because it makes the most sense to me, I’m heartily relieved I wasn’t born a New Yorker).
    I hate back-to-school. By Day Four we’d had to drive each kid to school once, my 6yo had melted down over the morning routine, my 8yo was in tears over homework… I don’t understand parents who think summer is the hard part. I love summer.

  108. Same old, same old for us…..no kidlets to push out the door and we’re in SoCal so it was sunny yesterday, it’ll be sunny tomorrow and sunny the day after that. >:-)
    But September IS the month when we govies usually run out of money so maybe work will slow down.

  109. AMEN sister!! I love that feeling of starting anew and lets face it. Getting the kids off to school and having a little quiet during the day is nice as well 🙂 HAppy September 7th!

  110. hoo-boy. I’ve been dreaming about this day for ten years. I had wonderful plans, and the notion that one month in, I’d be in tears, or calling cemeteries, or, or, or, or……as you can see, all sorts of ambivalences.
    and you’re right, january is not a full breath, just a big sigh.
    ari

  111. AGREE with Linda (a few comments above at 7:38!)
    Fall is the beginning of and the best part of the year. Winter and spring are almost as nice, but summer (you see I live in a hot-summer climate) is a horrible drag after three weeks. And you can’t wear great sweaters in summer– even cotton sweaters are much too warm in my area. But even the warm fall weather we get here looks like fall, and smells like fall, and does cool off quite a bit, so. . . Happy New Year!

  112. Perhaps because my birthday is in autumn, I have always thought of it as the time of new beginnings, and can’t wait for summer to end. I love autumn. Happy New Year!

  113. As you’ve probably noticed from the comments, you’ve hit exactly the right day in terms of the Jewish calendar (also happens to be my husband’s birthday this year, double celebrations) — so let me add my wishes that you and all your loyal blog-followers will have a sweet, happy, and healthy new Year — shanah tovah!! And break out the apple and honey (and the honey cake, pomegranates, but possibly not the sheep’s head in your case!)

  114. Amen! The first day of school especially feels like that for me because you progress every year to a new grade and you move forward. I also have the same issue with post it’s……and little notepads.

  115. I’ve always felt that Sept 1 should be the beginning of the new year also. Seems so much more logical. I mean Jan 1 is just one more dark cold day in this area. But I guess that was the very reason for having the year start on Jan 1 – a reason to burn bonfires (which they still do in the New Orleans area for New Year’s) & celebrate – something to break up the long gloomy winter.

  116. I am so happy to read this because I feel the exact same way. I just hadn’t realized it fully until you wrote my mind. Happy New Year!

  117. Perhaps you should move to Australia where the kids go back to school at the end of January at the end of the summer holidays.

  118. You are so right on this. Even though I don’t have children yet the school year still follows me around. I woke up this morning, the second cool-ish day in a row this summer, and felt like cleaning the house. Folded a load of laundry before breakfast! And this week I’ve been window shopping for sweaters without luck. Must be time to pull out my sweater project again.

  119. Happy new year, Stephanie! I hope it’s a good one for you & yours.
    (I wrote about this one time, too. I feel it as a new year quite keenly, being a teacher and all… New possibilities, new people. It’s very exciting. 🙂 )

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