For Herr Milne

Happy New Year.

Unlike many other holidays that are at essentially arbitrary times (Christmas, for instance), New Year's Day derives all its relevance from being just this specific day. Because it could be any other day at all, there is no reason it should be celebrated on any day. Compare Christmas. We have agreed that the birth of Christ should be celebrated once a year. We select a day for doing this. That day becomes Christmas. For New Year's Day, there is no thing we want to celebrate at all, nothing to fix to a certain date for convenience. Instead, the calendar is created first, then we celebrate the very fact that we have a yearly calendar. Hooray for us!

In other news, I received On the Musically Beautiful for Christmas and finished reading it yesterday. Review forthcoming.