The Chinese have it right with their New Year start

The conventional wisdom is that it’s bad to be wishing your life away but January is never a month that I’m sorry to see the back of, given its mid-winter location and its reputation for always being a time of the year when we all realise that we’re stony broke after the Christmas spend.

This time round, my main New Year resolution was that I would make none of those ridiculous commitments, but even that simple principle, adopted for the early days of January, also had its complications.

The commitment not to give up the drink; not to embark on any youthful fitness crusade; not to give up chips at lunchtime and not to resist the temptation of all things chocolaty . . . well it all kind of backfired, in that I showed great enthusiasm for not doing the ‘good things’.

February’s imminent arrival though has jolted me back into a more balanced approach and the second month of the year has always put a bit of humour into my life and daily routines.

Like criminals being rewarded for having an exemplary record during their time in prison, some of the bovines tend to be released in February from their period of winter captivity in the shed, while there’s always a reminder there too that a little stretch is coming in the evenings.

By now though, January has delivered a number of near mortal blows in the shape of credit card bills, winter storms and the realisation that another year has come and gone, leaving us to wonder as to how many more we have left.

February though has the happy knack of giving a more positive aspect to the year ahead, and despite all the Met. Office people categorising March 1 as the first day of Spring, I like to hark back to the teaching of the Franciscan Brothers on this one.

We were instructed, with no hint of dissent allowed, that Spring began on February 1, when the crows started to build their nests in the trees and the buds started to appear on the shrubs, flowers and trees. It was, as if the rooks kept a diary of the year, and knew that on the first day of the second month, it was time to get cracking for the new family on the way.

A glance through Google tells me that February derives its name from the Latin word februum that translates into purification, so maybe it is a more apt month to try and change our ways by making an effort to live the good life.

One of the big penance days of the month – Ash Wednesday – arrives earlier this year, on the 10th of February, due to an early Easter in 2016. The Easter date on the calendar is determined by the following sequence: the first Sunday after the first full moon that comes after the Spring Equinox.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.