I hope you had a fantastic New Year’s Eve celebration, but most likely you didn’t, according to Emma Teitel, a National Columnist for the Toronto Star.
On Dec. 31, Teitel boldly advised people to stay home on New Years’ Eve (this was a hilarious thing to read while I was worrying about my party plans).
“You could be ruler of an empire, feared and revered by men and women across the land, and New Year’s would still be a bust. In fact, New Year’s Eve is almost always a bust,” she said.
Teitel called New Year’s Eve “the king of party pressure” and “the king of party discontent.”
Why? She says that despite all the hype and anxiety around the event, the reason for celebrating is a hollow one.
Well, I certainly don’t have such a pessimistic view of New Years’ Eve, but I do agree that the pressure to have a great time on New Years’ Eve often leads to disappointment.
The expectation around New Years’ Eve is even more intense if you live in South America.
In Brazil, for example, people start releasing fireworks many hours before midnight. Everyone wears white; you see people making passionate promises for the new year; and everyone seems very emotional – hugging each other, calling their friends and some even crying.
And that’s not all. Phone lines get jammed hours - and sometimes days - before New Year’s Eve. Literally everyone is out on the street celebrating, popping champagne bottles, hugging each other dramatically and shouting ‘happy new year.’ Parties then continue all night long.
The next day you can trace the destruction of New Year’s Eve celebrations as garbage piles up everywhere and cities are deserted because everyone is asleep (or hungover).
Since this was my experience growing up, I simply assumed that New Year’s Eve was a huge celebration all over the world.
I was so confused after my first New Years’ Eve in Canada. Of course, people still popped champagne bottles; there was still a countdown; and people still wished each other a happy new year (and I think there were about two minutes of fireworks somewhere). But people went home shortly after the countdown, and it felt as any other day of the year.
Last year I was in Vancouver for New Years’ Eve and I swear I saw people sitting by themselves at cafes downtown reading a book around 10 p.m., as if it was just another night.
While I was in Vancouver, I convinced a friend of mine to go to a pub for the countdown (maybe I should also mention that before I invited him, he had plans to stay home and do nothing; what kind of world are we living in?). We had a glass of champagne at this pub, but then again, people went home shortly after the countdown.
While cities such as Dubai, Rio and Sydney try to impress visitors with hundreds of thousands of fireworks, Vancouver had no fireworks whatsoever on Jan. 1, 2015 (maybe I should stress this again: No fireworks) (I don’t know about you, but I refuse to live in a world with no fireworks).
This year I was at a little beach town in south Brazil with my family and they had a beautiful fire show that lasted approximately 15 minutes (I assume they spent half of the town’s budget on it).
I guess that, in the end, it doesn’t really matter if your New Years’ Eve was a great one or not. There are 360 days left in 2016 and you can still make the most of them.