ευτυχισμένο νέο έτος
This saying was created, because the new year only began on the 6th of January each year in former times and civilisations (This date goes back to Roman customs and shifts of the calendar).
Still, since there had been a calendar reformation by pope Gregor the XIII, the official end of each year was supposed to be around the 24th of December. This caused some days to be between the end and the beginning of two different years.
In 1691 this issue was fixed by pope Innozenz the XII who announced the 31st of December to be the new official end of the year as a day of remembrance for the deceased pope Silvester the I in the catholic church.
The saying is still used in numerous countries of northern Europe.
Europe is a nice keyword in this case, since you can definitely say that this year a lot of things have been happening between the year of 2017 and 2018. You can even say that this (mainly) 12 days long period of time has been a time of transition for the team of Praxis and Mediart.
It all started with the first of our volunteers starting their travels back to their home countries in order to celebrate the holiday together with their friends and families. Cristo was the first one who was on his way back. He was shortly followed by Killian and Dóra, who themselves were followed by Julian, Vera and myself. While we tried to make the most out of our time at home, Maris was trying to do the same thing here, saying goodbye to her Greek friends, the project and Serres.
Each after one another we then started to return back to our apartment and the work in Serres. Dóra returned and together with Maris she celebrated New Year's Eve enjoying the Greek way of ending the year, while probably also preparing hers and Maris' journey back to their home countries at the end of their project.
This time arrived quite fast for the rest of us so that by the time the rest of us came back we already had to say our farewells and wishes to them, while directly starting anew since the first of Praxis' new short-term volunteers had already arrived. With him, even though a few days later, also a new long-term volunteer joined-in our team so that now the former new ones are the old ones that are giving advices and explanations to others – who probably feel the same as we did when we arrived here for the first time.
In this case, the new year truly started off completely different than the old one has ended. Still, we are all looking forward to it, the projects we will carry out and to the people who are yet to come to our group in the next months.
And even if the most of us were struggling with something while being between the years - I'm talking: invalid ID's, Airport changes, luggage problems, strange people, missing cups and so on and so on – we managed to make it through everything and maybe even grew stronger doing so. Now having faced everything that had to happen to us, we can start working on this project with all the energy all these events have given us and we are going to try to make it as welcoming and inspiring to everyone who is new as we possibly can.
In this sense, the team of Praxis/Mediart wants to wish you all a happy new year and that you may fulfil your New Year's Resolutions.
Ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος, Χρόνια Πολλά , καλή χρονιά
written by Karolin VR