Happy Gnew Year

Practicing Gnostic Christians include New Year's Day as one of their Holy Days. Here's an explanation from the good gnostics at Gnosis.org:

New Year's Day occurs in the Christmas cycle as one the twelve days of Christmas, the period between the ending of the lunar calendar and the beginning of the solar year, a time betwixt and between, a time of misrule when the usual rules and authorities of the world are suspended. It is a time of temporary chaos, confusion, celebration, and breaking down of
old established forms to make way for a new light and new resolutions, the eternal new-born child of the year. These twelve days represent an opportunity for a psychological and spiritual renewal as well.

As a good gneo-gnostic, I will inform my own New Year's meditations and celebrations with this wonderful bit of gnostic mythology about the "usual rules" beings "suspended" by allowing my imaginative powers to envision what I might bring forth from within for myself and for my family in 2009.

New Year's Day for gnostics typically includes a Thanksgiving ceremony as well, so I'll also be giving thanks for the incredible blessings of 2008.

"The consummation of Gnostic rebirth gives us a way to transcend the sense of loss and pain, and to make the transitions and passages in our lives occasions for renewal and joy."