A year is not just a random period of time. There is a physical reality, phenomena repeating (although - see here), and every winter is followed by a spring. Years make sense.
New Year’s Days do not. They are just a random (but necessary) definition. That day was last year, this day is this year. It’s exactly as random as the definition of the International Date Line.
Still, our magic thinking requires us to assign meaning to January 1st. And why not? Hey, can I be nihilistic? It does not matter if there is (not) an intrinsic meaning to January 1st. That day is what we want it to be, or better, it is what I want it to be (at least for me), because I live this my life and if I die erring, if I die without having understood anything, if I die believing the world is a cube, then the world will end as a cube, at least it will do so for me and that will be all that I will ever be concerned with.
And that’s how we all live our lives.
I am no fan of Ayn Rand. I believe her philosophy is a perfect excuse for what human nature wants to indulge in anyway, but even if I disagree with so much of her thinking, there was a sentence in an interview with her, where she quotes an unnamed philosopher (here starting at 4:16) saying
I will not die. It's the world that will end!
And that is so true.
In that sense, even if there was no real divide in any physically detectable sense, I’m happy you made it, I’m happy to meet you on this side, happy to meet you in my reality. Happy New Year once again!
The Song of the Day is the old Doris Day tune “It’s Magic”, interpreted by Eddi Reader on her 2009 album “Love Is the Way”. See her live on YouTube.