Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

Happy New Year! I have always wondered why we say “Happy” New Year?  Are we happy because we’ve survived another year? Are we happy because the earth has achieved another birthday (completing a 365-day rotation)? Are we happy because this is a new moment presenting new opportunities?

To illustrate how out of tune I am to New Year’s Eve, while traveling in my vehicle, I passed the billboards adorning the freeway, and one sign said, “You’re invited to the NYE party.” The NYE party? What’s a NYE party? I thought that it might be a new organization or an invitation to a private club. Well, duh! It’s an acronym for NEW YEAR’S EVE.
 
I’ve never been a big one for welcoming in the new year. Even when I was in a parish, I loved being with the families, but in my mind, New Year’s Eve was as good of an excuse as any to gather parishioners together for a party. When you think about it, when society celebrates the new year, it is already halfway through the fiscal year – and as a Church, we are a month into the new liturgical year.
 
My mother would force us to celebrate New Year’s Eve. She would make special snacks, putting out shrimp, sandwiches and popcorn, and would demand us to stay awake until the stroke of midnight. We would watch TV as the new year was first welcomed by New Yorkers, then an hour later made its way to Chicago.

At midnight, the neighbors would shoot guns or fireworks, and for about five minutes, you would hear the popping of firearms or the explosions of fireworks – of course, all of which were illegal. Also, some observant neighbors would take their pots and pans and bang them. I wondered if this noise-making was a traditional activity, which was supposed to drive out the evil spirits lingering from the last year.

But, the one tradition that my mother maintained, which I believe was passed down from her mother, was that all of us had to eat at least one piece of herring. Now, I take after my father, I don’t like herring, but when your mother demands that you do this for good luck, you don’t argue. You do it because there is no doubt not doing it would start the year off on the wrong foot, and it would mean bad luck. So, with cringes on our faces, my Pa Pa and I swallowed the tiny piece of herring as if it were castor oil. With a smile of contentment, Ma Ma had us on a “good luck” track for the new year.
 
It would be only minutes after midnight, and I was hugging the pillow and realizing there was now 365 days – unless it’s a leap year, then it’s 366 – until my next herring fix.
 
New Years is a time to pause and take stock of the people and the events that have shaped our lives. But, the credit goes to God, who has blessed us with the opportunity to be His instruments and to serve Him. So, Happy New Year, my dear friends – because with every new year we’re much closer to a celebration that will never end, understanding fully what it means to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Note: This blog originally appeared as the January 01, 2019  "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.