Welcome to 2023

Is something wrong with us?

What is all the fuss?

A year has passed again as the earth revolves around the sun and it is in the same position as it was last year. That's all! 

What happened, what happened? What earth, what sun?

Yes, I'm not lying like some people, the earth has come back to the same position around the sun. That's pretty much all that happened.

So what? Today it's here, tomorrow it's a little further away. Yesterday it was already a little behind. The earth just keeps going around the sun. What's so surprising about that?

Even the moon goes around the earth. It, too, has its own way of going round and round. 

This has been the case for centuries.

That's what I'm saying, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing stopping the earth's or the moon's rotation. The clock is turning, the whole universe is in a rotation. 

I can't understand what all the excitement is about. 

But we are starting a new year! 

2023, a new year!

Let the gifts come, the tables are set. For some, it is a great joy, a pine tree will be planted in a corner of the house, for example, and the tree will be decorated with various ornaments. Let it be an elegant Christmas tree with lots of ornaments on it. 

Bring the presents and we'll arrange them under the tree. Oh how nice. But don't touch it before 12:00 at night!

Santa will put the presents in those boxes at night. Especially kids, if you open the boxes before then, you'll be left without presents! So don't touch them before that time!

The annual representation on TV starts again, and as always, an old person representing the aging year 2022, tired and tired, is leaving the stage of history. Meanwhile, our little friend, a child, appears from the other side of the stage. He is wearing a cape that says 2023. 

What a beautiful metaphor this classic scene is, an old person representing the old year is walking away, while the new year is a child who is still young!

We are all in New Year's mode now. We will sit at the table again today, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. 

If we want to put something on our plate and have a snack, the sultan of the house will say no, no way, did I do all this preparation for nothing, wait another five minutes and he will get angry again!

Meanwhile, there are special New Year's programs on TV again. 

Another special program on every channel. Songs, folk songs. All the famous artists are singing their songs.

In the old days, there used to be a belly dancer every New Year's Eve. 

I guess they don't appear much anymore. 

But New Year's Eve entertainment was good in the old days. It's not bad now either. It's the same in Russia, they have a special program every New Year's Eve.

Yes, in fact, the earth has moved around the sun to the same position as it was the previous year. But does anyone think about this fact on New Year's Eve? Just bang, bang, bang, just for the fun of it.

When I was young in Moscow, I once entered the New Year in a bar. We had fun with all the glasses until the morning. 

It was a cute little bar in the city center. The last time I saw them close down was a couple of years ago. Maybe they opened something in its place, I don't know.  

My friends we had come with were scattered left and right, and I had met some new people in the bar, I didn't really care who had disappeared where. Those were the days of youth. 

Time had passed so quickly that in the early morning, when someone said, "Come on, the subway is open," the bar was slowly emptying out, and that's how I knew it was time to leave. 

It was a new year with new acquaintances, and in a sense I had left the old and the troubles of the old year behind. We left that small place at dawn with new friends to continue the fun in a different way.

Today, it is not easy to catch the same excitement. New Year's Eve is mostly like a normal day. In fact, there is not much difference from a normal day.

The only thing is that if you find time to be on your own for a while, maybe a little bit, you reflect on the past year. A new year, new hopes. Maybe you think, I couldn't do it last year, I'd better do it this year. 

And for some people, the first days of the year are a chance to have a little rest in their busy schedule. It would be for me. 

Because in Russia, for example, from New Year's Eve onwards, there is almost a ten-day holiday, and in between, there are constant celebrations such as the birth of Jesus, this special day, that special day, that special day. They have the old New Year and a few other days to celebrate during the New Year holidays.

By the way, when I say the old New Year, I mean that because of the correction in the calendar, the New Year's Day was moved back two weeks in the modern calendar, and Russians still celebrate the day that coincides with the New Year's Day before the day was moved, and they call it the old New Year. It also sounds very funny in Russian.

They also celebrate the birth of Jesus on a different day than the Catholics. I think it's on the 7th of January. Catholics and Protestants, as far as I know, celebrate it in the old year, on the 25th of December.

So even among Christians there are fundamental differences in beliefs on some issues. Orthodox believe differently, others believe differently. 

I don't know exactly what day the birth of Jesus falls on in our country, maybe if a day is set according to the Hijri calendar, that day changes every year, just like holidays and holy days. Believe me, I don't know how it is practiced in our country, I don't know if we celebrate it or not, and I don't feel like looking it up right now.

Let me end with one last memory.

Again, I don't remember which year it was. 

I have written before, we usually don't celebrate any holiday properly here because of the busy pace of construction work. Even on Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, the construction site takes only one day off. And the day after New Year's Day, which is the first of January.

So we don't have the chance to rest properly during Russian holidays because we are Turks and during Turkish holidays because we are in Russia. 

Of course, since most of us have family here, especially New Year's Eve is spent with the family as much as possible, especially for the children. We have to buy gifts and stuff so that the children will be happy.

On December 31st, before one such New Year's Eve, due to my busy schedule, I was able to drive to the city center in the evening to buy a gift, but the traffic was so congested that even though I had been in the car for hours, the ten to fifteen minute drive would not end. It's the last day of the year, it's almost midnight and I've barely found anything for the children in one or two stores that were open, but I can't get home. The traffic is gridlocked, it doesn't move a single inch.

It had snowed a lot in Moscow that year and I think the traffic was blocked because of the heavy snowfall.

I can't tell you how happy I was when I was frustrated enough with the lack of traffic, my wife was on the phone all the time, and I spotted a parking lot on the side of the road somewhere two metro stations away from home. I parked the car in that unfamiliar spot and barely made it to the subway to get home in a sweat of blood and sweat, and only then, almost at midnight, did I reach home. 

The center was so congested that I think everyone there had to enter the New Year in their cars.

I never drove to the city center in the evening on December 31st again, that day stuck in my ear. Of course, I preferred to arrange the gifts much earlier and hide them somewhere at home.

Yes, let me end this article with my best wishes in the hope that this memory of mine will be useful for you too. I advise you not to go down to the city centers in the evening on the last day of the year.

I wish everyone happiness and health in 2023, the 100th anniversary of our republic. Stay with Ataturk, you can't go wrong!

As always, with love and respect from Moscow