Ringing in the New Year

Every New Year’s Eve, my family and I literally “ring” in the New Year with the ringing of a bell. The bell was given to us by my great grandmother, who was given the bell by a school teacher who stayed with her family when she was a kid. It was apparently used to call the kids back to school after they’d gone home to have lunch. Now, we use it for our New Year’s tradition.

Every year, after New Year’s Eve dinner, we all go around the table saying our resolutions or hopes for the new year and ring the bell to make them come true. My brothers and I used to have intense fights over who got to be the first to ring it, and who could make it ring the loudest. Now we’re a little more civil. As we go around the table saying our resolutions, my mom copies down what we say into a notebook. The notebook has resolutions going all the way back to when I was a little kid, at least 10 years. I’ve always loved this tradition. When I was a kid I loved it because I could ring the bell as loud as possible and then wish for legos and maybe world peace, but now I love it because of what it represents: becoming a better version of yourself. Every year I get to look back on what my past self hoped my future would look like, and reflect on my progress. I get to share my goals with my family and learn about what their goals are. Then, I can go into the New Year with a new sense of optimism and drive to make this year the best year yet.

Last Christmas, my great grandma sent us a box in the mail. In the box was another bell that was slightly smaller but nearly identical to our bell, and a letter apologizing because she realized she’d accidentally gifted us the wrong bell all those years ago. The bell inside the box was the real bell that the school teacher had used. That New Year’s, even though we now had the real thing, my family still chose to use the same fake bell we’d been using for years. I think that shows the spirit of the tradition and New Year’s resolutions in general. It’s not like ringing this magic old bell is actually going to make your dreams come true. You have to embody the spirit of your wish by working to make it happen. It’s the same with traditions and family mementos. It doesn’t matter what the meaning is in theory; you give an object its meaning by choosing to create memories attached to it. That’s why I hope to carry on this tradition when I get older and pass down the fake bell forever and ever.