How many ‘New Years’ per year?

A good question for a quiz competition.  If this question needs good answer, ask this not anywhere else but in Amritapuri.

Amritapuri is home to a number of peoples and communities from this land and foreign. Also Amritapuri celebrates every group’s ‘new year’ festivals. So no wonder you will get a near- complete picture of new years.

Only four months ago, January first of the Gregorian calendar, was one New Years’ day.

January 15th was the second new year’s day that some of our solar calendar based groups celebrated, calling it Pongal.

March 16th was the third new year’s day for some of us following the lunar calendar; we called it Yugaadi. The day marks the beginning of counting of Yugas or eons.

Now comes Vishu or Bihu; this is according to the Zodiac new year; normally it falls on April 14; this time on April 15th.. 1654 years back first Vishu was celebrated and it was coincidentally also the first day of the solar calendar.

Some celebrate Diwali in October/November as their new year.

All of them are however related to different aspect of the skies. For example, on Pongal the sun’s path -as we see- shifted northward; yugaadi marks the beginning of spring season. On Vishu the length of the day and the night are equal.

Cultures are many, but all of them converge in Amritapuri under the canopy of Amma’s universality. It thus helps us understand Amma’s words: Nothing really changes just because the numbers of the year change! Newness is a quality of the heart. For an aspirant every minute is fresh, is a new beginning.

– Sandhya