New Year

Happy New Year to everyone.

This is the (belated) first blogpost of the year. In Greece, last Friday was the first day back to school after the Christmas break, in England almost a whole week of the new term is gone, although, as I hear, with disruptions because of the snow. In Iran the (Christian) new year barely registered. The children are sitting end of term exams but are otherwise off school in order to study.

However, we observed the Greek custom of Vasilopitta, or New Year cake: on New Year’s eve, a cake is baked at home in which a coin is mixed. After the stroke of midnight or on the first morning of the new year, the family gathers around the table and the father of the family cuts the cake, assigning each piece to a family member, including those who are absent, and Christ, the Virgin Mary and the poor. The person in whose piece the coin falls is given a present or money, and can expect good luck in the new year.

The coin of our cake fell to the lot of my sister-in-law’s son. I forgot to ask about my mother’s cake in Athens.

In a previous post (14 Dec 09) I wrote about the charity wedding at my daughter’s school. The proceeds of the evening came to an equivalent of £1,700 ($2,500) in cash donations and another £3,500 ($5,500) in goods donations.

How a health scare can influence social behaviour: the general outbreak of influenza A got Iranians, just like everyone else, worried. The Ministry of Health made recommendations designed to limit the spreading of influenza A. These included refraining from shaking hands and kissing (the social type, which, as I detailed in Among the Iranians, is common between members of the same gender). Over the months I have observed that such physical contact in social situations is reduced considerably, with people only nodding and bowing. I wonder whether this will be a permanent change or whether Iranians will revert to their usual practice once the threat is minimised.