{"id":238,"date":"2013-01-01T18:11:59","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T02:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/?p=238"},"modified":"2013-01-02T18:12:34","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T02:12:34","slug":"a-new-year-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/?p=238","title":{"rendered":"A New Year Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"
As we welcome in the brand year of 2013, it is filled, both with a sense of anticipation on what the new year brings for us all, as well as a natural reflection on how we did in the old year, 2012.\u00c2\u00a0 Every new day, of course, is really kind of a repeat of past days – it is how we view and treat it, what we do with it, that makes all the difference.\u00c2\u00a0 In the case of the first day of the new year, we each realize that this is something special.<\/p>\n

I suppose that I’m kind of lucky to be one of\u00c2\u00a0those who has a nearly continuous memory of major and mundane events in one’s life, going back to around 3-4 years old.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh,\u00c2\u00a0I don’t remember every little detail, but\u00c2\u00a0similar to recalling what happened last year, I have decent memories back to around 1955.\u00c2\u00a0 I have read somewhere that\u00c2\u00a0lying dormant\u00c2\u00a0in our brains, are organic bytes ready to relive\u00c2\u00a0every memory of every moment of our lives – the challenge is being able to locate the information.\u00c2\u00a0 Eidetic (or photographic) memory must be an amazing gift – but then, you’d also remember all of the junk stuff too, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyways, the earliest New Year’s Eve I can remember was spent at my relatives’ home in Kalihi.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Their steep, brush-covered\u00c2\u00a0backyard was\u00c2\u00a0a part of the\u00c2\u00a0western slopes of Kalihi Valley (on the other side of their\u00c2\u00a0“backyard hill”\u00c2\u00a0was\u00c2\u00a0Fort Shafter).\u00c2\u00a0 They had a terrific panoramic view of Honolulu city, from which we\u00c2\u00a0watched the old-time aerials and could hear the\u00c2\u00a0thunderous\u00c2\u00a0sounds of fireworks echoing through the\u00c2\u00a0smoke-filled valley.\u00c2\u00a0 I was introduced to the wonderful world of crackerballs, sparklers, checkerbombs, and the ancient roman candles.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, at that age, I could only hold the sparkler and throw a few crackerballs…boy, I wonder how closely my parents kept watch over us back then ;)\u00c2\u00a0 My dad would drive us back\u00c2\u00a0home in the wee hours of the new year and I’d enter the first day of the year, fast asleep, my head bobbing on my dad’s muscular shoulder as he carried me into the house.<\/p>\n

Over the next few New Year’s Eves, my annual challenge would be to stay up through midnight, hear the mighty roar of thousands of firecrackers, and welcome the new year with my cousins and the adult relatives (I have never understood the significance of singing “Auld Lang Syne” – better known as “We’re Here Because We’re Here, Because…” heheh).\u00c2\u00a0 I graduated from sparklers to crackerballs, then later to firecrackers.\u00c2\u00a0 As a teenager, I had the occasional honor of lighting the “20,000” firecracker packs at midnight.\u00c2\u00a0 I use quotations because there was always a question as to whether those expensive packs really contained 20,000 firecrackers or not :)\u00c2\u00a0 I’d go to bed at about 3:00 am, sleep late and wake up to watch the recently created Superbowl football game with my dad.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The day after New Year’s Eve is the first day of the new year itself.\u00c2\u00a0 My parents began to host the family Eve celebrations when I was around 8 or 9 years old.\u00c2\u00a0 From then on, my very first act of the\u00c2\u00a0first day of the new year began\u00c2\u00a0by….sweeping the tons of red paper on the driveway,\u00c2\u00a0on the front lawn, and on the\u00c2\u00a0street.\u00c2\u00a0 The task would take no more than a half hour to complete (unless it had rained that\u00c2\u00a0night) and gradually began to take on a\u00c2\u00a0symbolic meaning to me.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00c2\u00a0felt as if I were actually (and metaphorically) sweeping away the remnants and trash from the previous year.\u00c2\u00a0 After\u00c2\u00a0all of the debris had been collected up and stuffed into trash bags, I would complete the process by washing down the driveway.\u00c2\u00a0 The cleaned frontage kind of represented the brand new year – kind of a neat way to start off the day, and the year.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The last time we ever hosted and popped firecrackers at my parents’ home was some 35 years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 I outgrew my fascination with fireworks and popped\u00c2\u00a0my last firecracker way back then.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, we celebrate New Year’s Day by joining my wife’s\u00c2\u00a0family and sharing in\u00c2\u00a0eating mochi soup.\u00c2\u00a0 The tradition of popping firecrackers, while still carried out by some, has largely gone away.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t miss the noise and I don’t miss the smoke…but sometimes, I do think about my own mini-tradition of sweeping out the old year and washing down to welcome\u00c2\u00a0the new.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure that each of us has our own thoughts on the turning of the new year…I pray that it’s as special a time for you as it is for me.\u00c2\u00a0 Have a terrific year in 2013!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we welcome in the brand year of 2013, it is filled, both with a sense of anticipation on what the new year brings for us all, as well as a natural reflection on how we did in the old year, 2012.\u00c2\u00a0 Every new day, of course, is really kind of a repeat of past days – it is how we view and treat it, what we do with it, that makes all the difference.\u00c2\u00a0 In the case of the first day of the new year, we each realize that this is something special. I suppose that I’m kind of lucky to be one of\u00c2\u00a0those who has a nearly continuous memory of major and mundane events in one’s life, going back to around 3-4 years old.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh,\u00c2\u00a0I don’t remember every little detail, but\u00c2\u00a0similar to recalling what happened last year, I have decent memories back to around 1955.\u00c2\u00a0 I have read somewhere that\u00c2\u00a0lying dormant\u00c2\u00a0in our brains, are organic bytes ready to relive\u00c2\u00a0every memory of every moment of our lives – the challenge is being able to locate the information.\u00c2\u00a0 Eidetic (or photographic) memory must be an amazing gift – but then, you’d also remember all of the junk stuff too, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 [...]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}