The year of the Ox is about to begin and Chinese people everywhere will be celebrating the Chinese New Year. As it is also called the Spring festival it is obvious that the Chinese see it as a season of renewal and re-growth. They wear new clothes at this time of the year to symbolise a new start.  Like people of every race and nationality they will be hoping and praying for a happy and a healthy new year. They may not sing auld lang syne in a Scottish dialect but they do make it a time for family re-unions. In fact the period around the New Year is the period of most travel when millions of Chinese return home to celebrate with family and friends.

While to most Westerners the New Year firework displays are just entertainment the Chinese see them as a way to chase away bad luck. In fact any fire whether it be fireworks or the bamboo stalks that their ancestors once lit are, traditionally, believed to keep evil spirits at bay. Red is the colour of fire and that is why they also wear red clothes and have poems printed on red paper. Even the children get red packets with money in it. Perhaps the best known of all their traditions is the dragon dance where young men carry long painted dragons dance along the streets on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. Those of us who celebrate New Year’s Eve too well would, perhaps, love to be like the Chinese and have a fifteen day festival to give us time to recover from our hangovers!

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It’s time for “Out with the old and in with the new”. At a time of recession the New Year can be a time of despair or we can look at it as a time to party and look forward to the opportunities ahead. As we count down to midnight we usually make our New Year resolutions. Instead of losing weight or giving up cigarettes why not try something a bit more ambitious? You could decide to break out of your comfort zone and realise your potential.  In fact the New Year is a good time to fix your focus and achieve your goals.

Perhaps one of the reasons most of us do not follow through on our resolutions is because they are selfish ones, concerned only with our own health or finances. Obviously there is nothing wrong with improving your health by walking more or giving up alcohol. What not do something more positive though and do something for others? Perhaps one of the very best things we can do in the New Year is to commit a random act of kindness each day.  Now that will make somebody’s life better as well as your own.

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Every country has its heroes and its public celebrations. In most cases they are politicians or soldiers. In Scotland, however, they are more cultured and celebrate a poet and a man of the people. Burns Night is celebrated wherever Scots gather. There they toast the immortal memory of this great Bard. This is the 250th anniversary of his birth and so the parties will be bigger, the celebrations more hectic and it is probably fair to say that more whisky will be drunk. On that night they toast the Haggis, not to mention the lassies as well as pay tribute to a man who wrote many of his words in an ancient dialect. Yet whose works are as fresh and as relevant today as ever. The Burns Night celebration night ends with a song that is known almost everywhere. On New Year’s Eve the world joins in with the Scots in singing what is probably Rabbie’s most famous song of all, Auld Lang Syne.

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The most wonderful Christmas gift anyone can give is the gift of a life.  Most of us, however, do not have the blood bank on our list of shopping venues. That’s not surprising because the thought of illness and operations does not fit in with our idea of the festive season.  We prefer to blank our minds to thought of horrific road crashes too. Yet illness can happen to anyone and road accidents occur whatever time of year it is. So perhaps a very good thought for the festive season would be to visit that blood bank and be a blood donor. Perhaps because people are so busy enjoying themselves that Christmas is a time when blood is very urgently needed.
Do you carry a donor card? That’s another good thought not only for Christmas but for the whole year. It doesn’t cost you anything but those who benefit from a new organ actually benefit from life itself.
Christmas is the season of giving. What better time to give of yourself rather than from your wallet. Soup kitchens, old folk’s homes and hospitals all need volunteers so why not dish out that turkey and ham rather than eat it yourself? After all in volunteering it’s in the giving we receive.

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Has it ever occurred to you that words can be the best Christmas gift of all? Depending on what we say to people we can inspire them, encourage them or motivate them.  In other words what you say can change the way people live their lives. So if you are a teacher addressing students, a boss addressing staff or a club officer speaking to members what you say can have a lasting effect on individuals and the way they think and act.
Friendships enrich lives so a few words on the subject friends make them and keep them could result in someone gaining a lifelong friend.  Alternatively, you might give the all important gift of confidence by urging people to develop confidence - learn he secret of self belief. That is something that will help them throughout their lives and change it for the better.
On a more personal level you can say to someone you know life is a challenge - meet it. By doing so you might just change a pessimist into an optimist and, naturally, life is much better for optimists. It’s much better to see obstacles as challenges that can be overcome.
Many people alienate others because they are aggressive. If you can get the message across to them to be assertive not aggressive you will certainly have helped make their life a lot happier.  Finally, a very good lesson to teach anybody is don’t procrastinate - do it now.  That applies to your Christmas shopping too of course!

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Despite Christmas it seems we haven’t forgotten our pagan roots. When the dark nights close in we try to banish them with flickering candles and festive gatherings. Winter is the time when, whatever the reason, annual dinners are held and people get together to enjoy good food and good cheer.
It isn’t always for selfish reasons. There are benevolent association dinners where workers gather to raise funds for a colleague who has hit on hard times. There are fundraisers for a children’s charity or for sufferers from an illness such as cancer or heart disease. Perhaps the organisers know that in winter we have more time to think of others and suffering seems more poignant in the dark and dreary months.
On the other hand of course there are family re-unions when families travel long distances just to meet each other and to celebrate the festive season. A Christmas wedding is special simply because besides the frills and flounces we have the sparkle and staff motivational speeches perhaps because they have a captive audience. After all most of us aren’t out playing tennis or fishing in the long dark nights of winter. Clubs and societies therefore, choose to have their parties in December or January.
So if you are invited to a dinner or a gathering make the effort, dress up and go. Our ancestors were right. Fun and laughter and good company are the best possible ways to banish the dark devils of those long cold nights.

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