There are events in an individual, group or community life that generate great expectations.
Even when humans have participated in such activities several times in the past, there can be a lingering hope that this time round a new beginning will make the real difference yearned for all these years.
Welcoming the New Year has become one of the greatest global events with its signature fireworks in virtually all major cities of the world and their environs.
It is as if the world metamorphoses into a global village, united in excitement, fanfare, song and dance.
In some cultures, bidding goodbye to the passing year and welcoming a new one happens in the context of a religious celebration.
Our information or digital age driven by technology has enhanced participation in ushering in a new dawn.
This involves people celebrating in their millions. They are like a joyous wave starting in the Far East and spreading evenly across the continents and islands to the west, with the crest ending in the Americas.
Cultures such as the Aztec of Mexico, Chinese, Inca extending from Ecuador to Peru and Jewish have developed calendars beginning with formal New Year festivities.
Traditionally, the Incas start their year during the winter solstice on June 24, which is the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere.
The celebrations focus on Inti Raymi, the Deity of the Sun, and they include processions, animal sacrifices, drink derived from maize, and dance.
The participants are delighted because the hours of sunlight will begin to lengthen to the benefit of the plant and animal kingdoms.
Spanish conquistadores or conquerors stopped the festival in the 16th century. It has been reinstated when those colonised people regained their independence.
The Chinese Year of the Rat will begin on January 25, 2020 and end on February 11, 2021.
While the rat is much maligned in many cultures, the Chinese give it the place of honour as the first creature in their 12 animal zodiac cycle ending with the pig.
Among the rat’s attributes according to Chinese belief is its strong survival instinct, which has enabled the species to spread and prosper far and wide on our planet, often against all odds.
The Jewish Torah or Law of Moses, with its authoritative interpretation by the rabbis, teaches that the Messiah or Saviour is expected to appear before 6,000 years have elapsed since creation.
As we prepare to transit into 2020, the Jewish community began their new Hebrew Year 5780 three months ago on September 29 with the celebration of the Rosh Hashanah or Head of the Year Feast.
New beginnings often give rise to heightened expectations. This is evident when the transition is into a new decade, century or millennium.
When we were entering the third millennium on January 1, 2000, some people expected an unimaginable apocalyptic happening that would radically change the course of human history.
We are now ending the second decade of the 21st century. Since nothing drastic occurred during the millennial transition, it is safe to conclude that most probably there will be no apocalyptic rapture as we transit from one decade to another.
Modern science has observed that the universe is expanding. Prof Steven Weinberg, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979, recently calculated the rate of expansion. His findings have received wide acceptance by his peers.
Even as the universe expands, seasons continue to occur on earth as they have done for aeons, depending on the position of our home planet relative to the sun it orbits.
But there is a problem. Environmental degradation leading to global warming has messed up the seasons, endangering the life of many species.
The damage done is largely due to human activity. At least for our own sake, it is important that we take urgent and concerted action at local and global levels to remedy this situation.
New beginnings are often expected to bring blessings and prosperity. Renaissance is associated with a sense of hope and optimism.
Little wonder that one of the passages in Holy Writ that many find inspiring and edifying is Revelation 21: 1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and first earth had passed away”.
As we bid 2019 farewell, let us welcome 2020 with hope reborn.
Fr Njoroge, the Catholic Chaplain at JKUAT, is Professor of Development Studies and Ethics
