Don't get me wrong, I understand why a year is 365 days long. I can appreciate that it makes sense to celebrate certain events on their anniversary, or to set aside a specific day annually to celebrate certain ideas or intangible institutions.

Given, however, that the allocation of 1 January on 1 January is, to the best of my knowledge, entirely arbitrary, I do not understand the celebration of it in and of itself. (It would make more sense to me for 1 January to be on 22 or 23 December, or to coincide with any of the solstices or equinoxes, or even to fall exactly half way between any of them.) Sure, a year is a handy marker to assist the mental compartmentalisation of events, but it is rare for anything to naturally last no more or less than 365 days and coincide exactly with the beginning and end of our calendar. It's an anniversary of anniversaries, the inception gif of time.

Last year, for the first time in my memory, my town had an event to celebrate Hogmanay and the New Year. The Gig at the Brig, it's called. My folks went. This year, they've got me a ticket to go with them. I can think of a few less attractive prospects, sure, but in all honesty I'd rather stay in. Looking back, my favourite Hogmanays have been the quiet ones either spent alone, or with as few people as possible and not really acknowledging the main event, or working. I brought in 2014 sitting in a bath reading a book, because I had work in the morning.

Do you like New Year? Do you celebrate it the same way each year? What are your plans this year? Am I alone in my failure to comprehend the significance or feel elated by its arrival?