
It’s January. It’s time to take stock of ourselves. Make resolutions. Change habits. Sweep out the old. Set some goals.
This is a New Year, but also a repeat of another year. Our universe moves forward, but circles around at the same time. We follow cycles that are as old the understanding of time itself. There are patterns that repeat, which we can see and use to fuel our hope.
There is always possibility.

Ancient Cycles
The celebration of a new year likely began as soon as people realized that there was such a thing as a year. One of the first big things people noticed must have been the sun and its movements, noticed that this giant flame that provided light did so in a slightly different way every day. There are 37,000 year old cave paintings that show the sun and the moon, using the cave walls a kind of “paleo-almanac.”
Last night, the moon set in the west, pouring light through my bathroom window when I got up. It does that every so often, doesn’t it?
The earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia–the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians–all had ways of counting time and all celebrated the new year. The Egyptians celebrated the flooding of the Nile, which happened in the middle of our calendar year, so their New Year was near the summer solstice. They called it Wepet Renpet, the “Opening of the Year.” As part of the coming year, they held feasts, exchanged gifts, and honored their gods.

The Sumerians celebrated two types of new year festivals: Zagmuk and Akitu. Zagmuk happened near the winter solstice and commemorated the triumph of the highest god (Marduk) over lesser gods, order over chaos, light over darkness. Sometimes the ceremony involved a mock-toppling of a malevolent king. Sounds like a weird variation of an inauguration to me.
The Romans, of course, also held a giant celebration of winter solstice called the Saturnalia, a week-long holiday of feasting and revelry. The early Christian Church voted in 336 CE that Christmas should fall on December 25th, partly to convince those still celebrating Saturnalia to celebrate Christmas as well. This timeframe still coincides with our modern Christmas/New Year/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Twelfth Night holidays as well. So, really, New Year’s 2025 isn’t that different from the Sumerian and Roman experiences of feasts, exchanges of gifts, and celebration of the end of darkness, at least for those in the northern hemisphere.

Sumerians also celebrated Akitu, which eventually became their official New Year, around April 1st. That’s the spring equinox, planting season, fertility season. They would march a procession through the Gate of Ishtar, chant rituals songs and poems about cleaning out the house, preparing the bridal bed, and parading statues of the gods through the city. During the public rituals, the king or leader was also slapped silly by the high priest until he cried, which affirmed his authority. Maybe we should also add that to the inauguration. Just for this year.
Patterns
Everything old becomes new again. Everything new turns old. For thousands of years, patterns repeat.
I take comfort in that because I know, like some of you, that it’s hard to look forward in 2025 because of recent events. The cretins have the keys to the castle again, the goblins are in charge and they’re cackling with glee.

But I think we have to step back and see this as part of a larger pattern. Perhaps that’s the natural province of the historian, knowing the lessons as it were. This f*ckery has happened before. It doesn’t have to own us.
Right now, the January news is focused on the goings on of people in a city far away physically and philosophically. Washington DC tends to think of itself as the center of the universe, like those old models that put Earth at the core of the system. Then the astronomers had to torture the math of the planets to make everything fit, since the Earth wasn’t actually the center of the solar system. News from the U.S. capitol tends to be like that, distorted, over-emphasizing the wrong things, creating a lot of noise of grinding, but not going very far.
Much of it is not important. It’s hard to ignore when we want to ensure we are aware of important news. For example, I was reading an article about how the local governments fighting fires and helping hurricane victims have to spend increasing amounts of time pushing back against ridiculous rumors. The fire was started by aliens! The mayor laughed while Rome burned! It’s absurd that we all have to spend taxpayer money to hire people who will monitor communication accounts to eliminate blatant lies. But then, I made the mistake of clicking on the “Join the Conversation” underneath the article, and there were trolls spreading equally absurd rumors. It was all Biden’s fault, Democrats created the fire etc.Whose fault was my consequent aggravation? Mine, for clicking on the conversation. I know better. We know better.
I would encourage us to leave this obsession with outrage and despair behind and press the reset button. True, we can’t stop people with some kind of authority and access to media from saying outrageous things. We should stop them from doing outrageous things. But, at least for me in 2025, I have committed to not getting constantly riled up about what people say, over there, in that place where they are trying to get our attention. It’s not easy. I got stuck writing this post because I couldn’t get past this paragraph. Phew! I’m past it now!
I have better things to do. Like making lists of where to donate my time and money, where to volunteer to help people who need it, and how to help raise awareness on more important things. Also, New Year’s reminder, when you donate to a charity, see if you belong to an organization or employer that matches. Oh, wait! I do!
I’m kind of hoping that writing about ancient Sumeria will help remind me that we’ve done this before, we’ve been through this before, it will cycle through. Lessons of history and all that.

Potential
This is my 474th post, since I started writing nine years ago. I had no plan to write this much, about history or ideas or people in this way when I started. I was just seeing what I could do. I think it’s a testament to the spirit of creativity. None of us know what we have in ourselves until we try. That’s what new years are for.
I didn’t know when I started that I would get really interested in the Olympics, dinosaurs, and the Middle Ages, and write four books and a few articles. (Is that several? How many counts as several?) Back in 2016, I set a goal of trying to write every week, though I originally though it might be more about restaurants and movies, and less about Sumerian New Year rituals. Goals work that way. They just give you a direction so you can start moving. You don’t have to stay on one path.
Note to self: being an analytical and skeptical person, I’m wondering about that 474. I think that’s more estimate than reality. That number is what WordPress tells me has been published. But I know I switched sites once and repeated some posts, so I think I’ll have to go look up and count them. That’s the taking stock part. Frankly, that’s a better use of my time than “joining the conversation” online.
Now for the goals. I spent the last couple of years focused on academic writing, which meant fewer blogs. My goal for 2025 is to write blogs a little more often. Every time I stop, for the holidays or other logistical reasons, the faucet dries up a little, and is that much harder to crank on. My goal is to keep the handle well-lubricated.
Also, some time this year I will pass 500. We’ll have to have a party. I suggest we put up a mock version of our political leaders and slap them silly.
Just like the Sumerians used to do.
I’ll send you an invite.
I already know that I’m not going to do it, but I have seriously thought about going to Santa Fe and just turning off all electronic means of communication. Just think, I could devote time to writing and reflecting on my life!
Well (a) Santa Fe has access to the same good and bad junk. so you could move to Santa Fe if you want but still end up reading the same nonsense, but in a prettier place perhaps? or (b) you could create practices that help you avoid getting sucked in. Either start with certain days or hours where you pretend you are in a communication-less Santa Fe or avoid certain sites. Each of us has to solve this conundrum in a different way. I support you in your challenge! Thanks for the comment!
I like your conceptually rich argument as to the future and encouragement for deciding upon new direction(s) in the new year — which I feel is different in quality from sticking with a habit of making any resolution as the old year disappears. Thank you for sharing!
Happy New Year Marleen! I made a resolution, to do more XX, and 13 days in, I have done zero XX (yoga as it happens). I think resolutions i.e. “I should XXX” don’t work very well. It works better for me to say, go do this right now, and then I get interested and more and then I’m doing it. I hope you find some new and interesting stuff in 2025. Thanks for the comment!