by another year
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and the sixth day of Christmas. We are readying ourselves for our favourite way of celebrating, a quiet evening with close friends over good food and interesting games, rather than parties or clubs, with a bottle of champagne ready at countdown. I suddenly wish I could take up an old Finnish tradition I remember from childhood – pouring molten tin into snow and reading our fortunes from the shapes.
Some brave folks may be even going for a Polar Bear Swim on New Year’s Day, though not us! Or maybe we would if we had a sauna by the lake, like many Finns.
To be honest, I always feel sad New Year’s Eve because another year passes, how quickly time passes. Yet I appreciate that we celebrate surviving another year and live with the hope that a fresh new year will bring a better world. And here in the north, we also celebrate the passing of the darkest days of the year and await the slow return of lighter and warmer days.
A big thank you for your support to everyone reading this. I wish you many new successes, new joys, good health, peace and contentment, and abundant creativity. Hauskaa Uutta Vuotta! Bonne année! Allen ein frohes Neues Jahr! Happy New Year!
December 30, 2006 in Being an Artist, Culture by Marja-Leena
Happy New Year, Marja-Leena. Thanks so much for accompanying me through this year. Your cheerful spirit and warm words always brought something special even when things weren’t going the best. I hope we can talk a little more in this coming year! Hauskaa Uuta Vuotta!
Onnekasta Uutta Vuotta, Marja-Leena! Vaikka yksi vuosi on taas kiitäen mennyt, se toi mukanaan myös joukoittain elämyksiä ja uusia kokemuksia, iloisia ja surullisiakin hetkiä, eikö? Elämää. Nautitaan siitä, ison meren sillä ja tällä puolen. Kippis!
I wish you many new successes, new joys, good health, peace and contentment, and abundant creativity.
Same to you, Marja-Leena. Happy New Year!
Hyvää uutta vuota Sinullekin!
Your evening sounds very similar to what we have planned. Happy new year to you, dear Marja-leena!
Another lovely photograph, and I particularly like that you have captured the yellow light of winter with the ice. Many thanks for the pleasure and interest you have given over the past year – onwards to new discoveries, excitements, and achievements!
Happy new year!
Hauskaa Uutta Vuotta, Marja-Leena!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Marja-Leena…
Molten tin? I want molten tin. I want! I want! I want!
(Happy New Year!)
Happy New Year!
Thank you, thank you, all! How wonderful to come home to all these greetings from friends! All of you are very special to me through your blogs and I really appreciate each of you personally writing in here.
We were away at our friends’ place for the weekend. Had a very wonderful and busy time, only peeking in briefly at emails. Will write and post photos hopefully later today.
A very happy new year, Marja Leena. What an intriguing tradition, pouring molten metal into snow! Maybe that was the start of your interest in printmaking? Wishing you lots of creative sparks in 2007.
Some friends just described to me a similar German tradition–can’t remember the name now, unfortunately–but they put little pieces of molten lead in water, and the resulting shape is “read” for signs of the future.
Who needs molten metal: your future WILL be good. Tell ’em I said so.
Happy New Year, Marja-Leena.
Natalie and Teju, thank you!! A couple of years ago I tried to find something about this molten metal – fortune reading tradition. There’s not much, but I was surprised to find it is also German (mentioned in the sixth-day link above, by the way). I imagine it’s one of those pagan rituals that the Church tried to eliminate.
Happy, happy New Year, Marja-Leena! I hope it will be a very good one for you – and perhaps this will be the year we actually meet! Thank you so much for your warm friendship and all the wonderful posts about art and the process of making it!
A very happy new year to you and yours! Thank you for the warmth of your friendship and for the wonders of your blog.
Happy New Year to you and your family, Marja-Leena. I hope that one of these days we can meet in person.
The molten tin tradition sounds like fun! I remember something vaguely similar from my childhood, though I am not sure if it involved tin or something else.
Beth, MB, and Maria – Thank you, dear friends, and I too hope that we may meet one day, perhaps this year!
Again, a big thank you to everyone, whether or not you comment here, for reading through the year and making this blog endeavour a less lonely pursuit! Happy New Year, dear readers!