Memorable Holidays (14)

I enjoy most holidays, but probably my least favorite holiday would be Halloween. In 2004 I was in a city just outside of London on the 31^st of October. It was a chore trying to get to sleep that evening, as there were firecrackers and bottle rockets going off every five seconds. The doorbell sounded numerous times as hopeful hooligans roamed from house to house. That was not a fun night. Thankfully no rigged one up anything to my uncle’s new car and we departed several days later with an unharmed vehicle.

My most favorite holiday falls on the 21^st of March. Oh, wait — maybe that’s not an official holiday. Ok, I like New Year’s Eve. In the most recent years I have started staying up to experience the changing of one year into another through the progression of a single second.

2005 was almost over, and my sisters and I decided we would stay up until midnight, to witness the death of the old year and the birth of the new. About an hour from the time of new beginnings, we lapsed into a state of lethargy, punctuated by senseless laughing. The seconds slogged by until finally the last of the millions of seconds that had paraded past alongside the year 2005 exited the stage of time. My sisters and I watched breathlessly as the trembling hand in the clock lingered for a moment in the fleeing past. Then, as if with enthusiastic resolve, the needle leaped forward into the bold new future. 2006 had arrived.

Of course we don’t have one of those fancy atomic clocks. It probably had turned 2006 five minutes before. The three of us stumbled off to bed. What excitement!