We All Have Plenty Of Time To Say Happy New Year

A new year has come, and as usual many resolutions are being made. Some people even take the resolution of not making anymore resolutions. Wishing everyone a happy new years is usually one of the first tasks taken at the beginning of January. Maybe some of you—like me— are worrying so much that at the end of the first day of the year you checked your phone, email or Facebook to see who you could have forgotten.

The Gregorian calendar sets New Year’s day on January 1, and it seems that after this day making wishes is useless or belated. The truth is that you have the whole year to wish a Happy New Year to your relatives and friends.

The whole year is a new year, in fact many groups all around the world celebrate New Year’s on a completely different month. There is not a world calendar. Here on the western side of the world, the Gregorian calendar is used, but the Chinese, the Jews, and the Muslims all have their own respective calendars with different dates for the new year. At least two billion of the world’s population does not use the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, many will be celebrating a new year at different times of the year, some of those people will even start their new year as we will almost be finishing ours.

If you have missed celebrating the 1st day of January 2015, you can start by wishing a Happy New Year on January 31. If someone stares at you like you have lost your mind or recovered from a coma, tell him/her that more than one billion people in China are celebrating a new year that day. Korea and Vietnam are celebrating at that time too. So while you’re thinking at this point it is foolish to tell people Happy New Year, the Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese are getting ready for it.

If you miss celebrating on January 31, don’t panic, you  can make your wishes on March 20, the Iranian New Year. If don’t celebrate on March 20, know that another New Year will begin on April 13 in Cambodia. If you still did not remember to catch this deadline, r-e-l-a-x, you still can make wishes on April 14, the Sri Lanka’s New Year. After April 14, you have until September 24, the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), to make your wishes.

Lastly if you have missed all those opportunities to wish a New Year, the Islamic calendar that starts the New Year in October 24 gives you a last chance to make your wishes. If you failed to remember that one, you still can wish a Happy New Year on January 1, 2016. No need to hurry.