Opinion One-world New Year brainwash
To Christianitys credit,their globalisation of New Year is the clear winner.
Different religions and cultures have different year-ending times,but when it comes to December 31,its a unified,one-world global culture to ring in the New Year. Whats considered the best marketing job to date? To Christianitys credit,their globalisation of New Year is the clear winner. The worlds longest running,unique,uninterrupted,sustainable Government is vested in the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church,of whom the first was St Peter,born in 1 BC,died in 67 AD. Todays businesses,politics,kingdoms and governments have a huge lesson to learn from the incomparable Holy See,modern day Vatican. It has survived undisrupted as a sovereign entity for over 2,000 years.
Sitting in India,people accept the Gregorian year-numbering system as the predominant international standard. This New Year celebration is actually of Hebrew origin to mark December 31 as the last day. Pope Gregory XIII calculated,froze,introduced and imposed a calendar named after him,signed by a papal decree on February 24,1582,which has now become the global norm. The previous Julian calendar assumed the time between vernal equinoxes to be 365.25 days,when in fact it is about 11 minutes less,resulting in the equinox not being on a firm date. Since the equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter,the Roman Catholic Church considered this steady movement to be undesirable. Hence the Gregorian calendar,which continued the previous year-numbering system of Anno Domini that counts years from the traditional incarnation of Jesus,spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.
French and German speaking countries celebrate New Years Eve as Saint Sylvesters Feast. Pope Sylvester I died in 335; its a coincidence that his Feast is celebrated on December 31,the day of his burial in the Priscilla Catacomb. We can therefore say that December 31 as the end of the year has been imposed by Christianity (Gregorian calendar). A century sounds very long,but since the Judeo Christian dictat,there have been only 2011 new years. Of course,the Muslims first day of Muharram or Chinese Yuan Tan and Japanese Oshogatsu,among others,are unique New Years,but nobody could make it as universal as Christianitys dominating power did. The Hindu way of life has several New Year dates based on harvests,language or regions such as Maharashtras Gudi Padwa,Karnatakas Ugadi,Punjabi Baisakhi,Assamese Bihu or Bengali Poila Boishak in March/April and of course Diwali for all in October.
Through different eras of handmade goods to mechanical,electronic and digital technology,festivities surrounding December 31 and January 1 are intensifying. Western Christians and converts in their colonies used to have local merriment,but Christian doctrines have unified all societies so people erroneously consider December 31 as devoid of religion. So happily everyone welcomes January 1 as their very own celebration.
Taking this forward,no other religion has a living god-like summit as the Pope. Notwithstanding scandals of homosexual prostitution rings,pedophilia among priests to Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi conscript,prohibition of condoms and womens liberty for abortion,Holy City Vatican remains recognised by international law for centrally governing the Catholic Church.
The current Pope,Joseph Ratzinger,joined the Hitler Youth in 1941. Drafted into the military,he was an anti-aircraft unit member protecting BMWs aircraft engines factory that used slave labor from Dachau concentration camp. When transferred to Hungary,he set up tank traps and watched as Jews were rounded up for transport to death camps. Eventually he deserted and became a prisoner of war. He says hed never participated in combat or fired a shot.
When I asked my friend Bernard Offen,an 80-year-old survivor of Nazi death camps,whose 51 family members were gassed to death among six million murdered Jews,whether there were any good Nazis,he said. They were all cruel. Hitlers dream was 1,000 years of Nazi power. Ratzinger says hed resisted Hitler then; however,dissenters were then punished,he was never punished. His past is being questioned because hes the head of Christendom. After satisfying papal politics,he became Pope Benedict XVI,and in 2007 went to pray in Polands Auschwitz concentration camp. This most horrific place was where Nazis publicly tortured,court marshaled and gunned down Jews and dissenters,and purged prisoners in gas chambers. Nobody can believe such brutality can be committed from reading about it from faraway lands.
Spreading afar its influence,Christianitys December 31 celebration has delightfully gripped Indias newfound liberalised economy. Cabaret dancers are invited from places like Brazil,Russia,Philippines and Las Vegas to show their beautiful legs and other parts of the body. Five star hotels encourage the vanishing trick glass where people compete for grand prizes on how quickly liquor-filled glasses can vanish. Western disc jockeys surprise with huge collections,not forgetting to play Bhangra amid techno and hip-hop to localise their entertainment.
While living in homogenous Europe enjoying December 31 celebrations,it never occurred to me to think deeply about St Sylvesters Day. I must confess Im part of this brainwash too. But experiencing New Years Eve among a billion people whose culture,language,religions are so varied,I thought,let me ponder over it. I apologise for disappointing my friends by becoming the observer not the actor this year,and not hosting the December 31 bash we all enjoy.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
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