Repetition

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ANOTHER DAY; ANOTHER…NEW YEAR?

Is it New Year again, already?
It seems like only yesterday
But, then again, perhaps it was
Time flies so fast, it’s hard to say

As one year ends, another New Year
Rides the cycle of repetition
But who can say which is New Years Day?
Each culture has its own tradition

Was New Year’s Day the first of the first
As Gregorian calendar states?
Eastern Orthodox Church year begins
The fourteenth (first, by Julian dates)

Back in Old Russia, the fifteenth day
Of the first month was Happy New Year
And one of twelve animals greets us with
‘Kung Xi Fat Choi’; you know I refer

To Chinese New Year; the year of the Ox
Lunar cycle, twenty sixth, just gone
But this could occur, depending on year
Between Jan and Feb twenty one

Then in Japan, twenty seventh of Jan
The tradition has been preserved
Yet in Tibet, New Year is set
Jan thru Mar, when Losar is observed

In case I missed you in January
I’ll repeat it for your benefit
‘Happy New Year to one and all’
But that isn’t the end of it

On the first of March, in old time Venice
They held their New Year festival
And March sees the Vernal Equinox
Some found this date more logical

Traditional springtime ceremonies
Mark the old year, over and done
Tamil Nadu, thirteenth, fourteenth March
Baha’i – Naw Ruz – day twenty one

Bengali, centrally on day fifteen
In Kashmir, the nineteenth, by the way
Thelemic New Year, moon permitting
On day twenty…give or take a day

Saka is Balinese, Javanese
On March thirty, New Year is beckoned
In Andhra Pradesh, it’s Tulugu
On March, or April the twenty second

To all you modern-day April Fools
An excuse to joke and play
But April the first, was the first of the year
To Assyrians, back in the day

Also in April, the sixth day sees
In UK, the New Tax Year begin
While on the thirteenth, the Sikhs celebrate
And their own New Year is let in

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth day
Treat the New Year with TLC
In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia
April’s three days of festivity

‘Sawasdee Pi Mai’, the greeting in Thai
As Songkhran water battles take place
Get soaking wet…or try to stay dry
If you find you can’t take the pace

New Year in French Republican times
Was the twenty second September
And Diwali repeats annually
In October or November

November thirty; St Andrew’s Day
Or the Sunday closest to this date
Is Roman Catholic Ecclesiastic
New Year for priests to celebrate