Millennial Twelve Days of Christmas Day 7: New Year's Eve

Individual Champagne Mini Fridge. Image Source: Trendhunter.

Out with the old, in with the new.  I don't know whatever happened to sticking a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice, but Veuve Cliquot now sells miniature 'luxury cooling devices' for individual bottles of champagne, to keep your wine cold while you're traveling around.

Time lapse fireworks, Auld Lang Syne and resolutions below the jump.

Time Lapse Fireworks. Video Source: Youtube.

New Year's Fireworks in London, January 2010. Video Source: Youtube.

Tranquil Mammoth's 2009 resolutions. Image Source: Tranquil Mammoth.

Resolutions? Go easy. Let's leave the financial troubles of 2008-2010 behind us and find happier times.

Image Source: The Moderate Voice.

The blog, The Moderate Voice, explains how the imagery of the Old Year as an old man and the New Year as a baby originated in Roman Bacchinalia rituals:

"Long ago, the child of ‘the new year,’ was named Dionysus; and as an infant he was carried about by the old men Silenus and Hermes. ... [T]he child Dionysus, was born at this time of year …when the dark is lifting and the light of day is growing longer… Though in late forms, Dionysus was degraded into the ‘God of drunkenness,’ but in earliest understanding he stood for the kind of psychic intoxication that comes from knowing what could be called the ... God in all things.

... [T]he old man who carried the child in his arms, represented the senex, the old wise man; the one who had lived long, who knew the preciousness of new life ... the detours and long-cuts … and the old man was the child’s protector.

... Long ago, the child and the old man were not separate ideas, but one. The older one did not die in order to be replaced by the younger. Instead, they represented a hieros gamos of sorts, a sacred union… two critical aspects of inner nature, that when melded together, created a third: a conscious and awakened psyche. And, only if one were severed from the other, wisdom from joyous potential… than disorder would follow. Each would falter, eventually go awry, then sicken and die… for lack of their life’s work in balance with one another. ... New Year’s was once that time when people turned to consciously ‘remember,’ reclaim these aspects of themselves once again; The wiser patient self, and the ever-leaping inventive one."

Strange Days ending. Video Source: Youtube.

New Year's is not complete without a kiss.  IMHO, one of the best film kisses ever in a New Year's Eve scene is from the 1995 movie Strange Days, about the New Year's Eve celebration of 2000; this movie had superb performances from Angela Bassett, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Sizemore and Juliette Lewis.

Auld Lang Syne, sung by Dougie MacLean. Video Source: Youtube.

According to Wiki, Auld Lang Syne means 'old long since' and the title translates loosely as 'for old times' sake'; the Wiki site also gives Robert Burns's original lyrics.  The following is a minimalist modern English translation of the Scots words:

Auld Lang Syne.
By Robert Burns (1788).

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

~CHORUS~

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

~CHORUS~

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

~CHORUS~

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

~CHORUS~

Auld Lang Syne, played by the Polish group , the Czestochowa Pipes & Drums (2009). Video Source: Youtube.

Happy New Year, by ABBA. Video Source: Youtube.

Happy 2011!