麻豆约拍

An ancient tradition, still observed in my parish, is ringing in the New Year. At half past eleven on December 31st the bell ringers ascend the tower, fortified with strong drink, to make sure that January 1st arrives with a great clanging of bells: ring out the old, ring in the new, as the saying goes. One year was particularly memorable, 1893/94, when a bell ringer named Mr Moon expired on his rope as midnight struck (the only person in my parish registers to have two recorded dates of death).

Hard to think of a more vivid example of seeing off the old at the stroke of midnight than that, and I鹿m happy to report there were no casualties this year. But it tells us perhaps that the impulse, in the bleak midwinter, to say farewell to the past and to turn towards the future and the coming of new life, is deep and commonly found. Did you know that in Japan at midnight on December 31st the bells in Buddhist temples are rung too, 108 times, to see off the 108 sins we鹿re susceptible to (I demand a recount)?

I suppose it鹿s only natural, as the old year turns into the new, to look back at the things we regret, and forward to an as yet unfilled future; to opportunities to get fewer things wrong and more things right.

And although we know that it takes more than a peal of bells to right our wrongs, let alone the wrongs of peoples and nations, to hear them at midnight, ringing out in the frosty, starlit air, calls us once again to make an effort.

We may not yet have cured Ebola, or resolved the crisis in the Middle East, or even managed to sustain our New Year fitness regime for forty-eight hours; but turning, day by day, from bad stuff behind us to better stuff ahead, we may just surprise ourselves by bringing in a new reality, unexpected and quite wonderful, and well worth a peal.

A very blessed and happy and resonant new year to all.

听