Offering your wishes on the occasion of the New Year is undoubtedly very conventional, but it is also very proper. Especially since the custom is very old: doesn't it go back to Antiquity?
In Rome, the month of January was that of Janus, god of endings and beginnings, god with two faces: one who looks to the past, the other to the future. On December 31, we are all, a little, Janus: we take a look, sometimes melancholy, over the past year, telling ourselves that it cannot be worse, and we look towards the new year in a variable, mysterious and uncertain mixture of hope and anguish in the face of this dawning time.
Curiously, the temple of Janus became the symbol of peace and war. In times of war, its doors were open – which was the case most of the time. In times of peace, they were closed. The past year has shown us that the doors of the temple are ajar. A case that was not possible for the Romans! We are not at war but, this New Year's Eve, 90,000 police officers and gendarmes – no less – are mobilized for this night of passage. A real army. Like last year. It therefore becomes a habit that we could do without! Let us spare a thought for these defenders of the City intramuros.
Still in Rome, at the beginning of January, it was customary to offer New Year gifts. A tradition which has recently been lost in our Western societies since Christmas became the holiday of gifts – a consumer society obliges. “Étrennes”, a pretty word that has fallen a little into disuse. It takes its root from “Strena”, goddess of the new year, strength and health. Here we are! Giving your New Years to those you love means wishing them lots of good things for the New Year. And health, first of all, as the old popular wisdom dictates.
First of all, health for France, which we all hold close to our hearts. No doubt she could get better, if only by changing her treating doctors. The year 2024 showed that it was complicated. Will things get simpler in 2025? “ I watch at the gates of heaven with the kind procession of the Hours; Jupiter cannot enter or leave without me: that is why they call me Janus* »…
And, of course, health for information. This information that the team BV strives to deliver to you, 365 days a year, tirelessly, patiently and passionately, after having verified it and with the ambition of helping you form your own opinion.
Dear readers of BVhappy new year 2025!
*The Fastesby Ovid
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