New Year 2019
Fifteen New Years here, and the discovery that a foreigner eventually acquires a second set of holidays without giving up the first.
Happy New Year.
Fifteen of these now, and something I did not anticipate when I arrived: you do not trade one calendar for another. You accumulate.
I keep the Turkish holidays of my childhood and the Ukrainian ones of my adult life, and the year has become considerably fuller than either would be alone. There are people who find this uncomfortable, as though belonging somewhere requires unbelonging somewhere else. I have never experienced it that way and I do not think it is true.
A person can hold two calendars in their head without contradiction. Most people who have lived abroad for a long time will tell you the same.
A good year to your household, on whichever calendar you keep.
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