New Years Lessons in Europe
New Years is important everywhere, but in Slovakia I think we celebrate it with extra vigour. Fireworks last long into the night, and begin going off days earlier.January 1st, in addition to the first day of the new year, is also the anniversary of our independence. We officially became our own little nation on that day in 1993, when we split off from Czechoslovakia...even if it was arranged as a power grab for Mečiar', our prime minister for too long. (Interested in this story? Check out this link!)
It excites me to have been part of the history of this country; to grow up here where the country itself is just beginning to get on its feet and walk.
To watch the buildings be painted
See the lines in (or waiting outside of) stores become virtually extinct
Mečiar be at least temporarily defeated
Colours be worn instead of always just black clothing on everyone
I remember waiting to hear election results, and when the first mall was built and opened, and the days when border crossing could take at least six hours.
The new building onto the old. That is what this country is doing... what countries all over the world must do. What even Christianity has done... and what all of us do with our own lives. When we go into the new year, it seems like we get the notion we can have a completely new life, as if our past has no effect on our future. All our resolultions that are bound to fail because they break too cleanly with who we are right now...
Here is a picture for you, from Austria. Driving back from Vienna Airport with my Dad yesterday, I finally took a picture of it after driving through it all these years...
It is a picture of the old wall of Hainburg, built
centuries upon centuries ago. And we still pass through it's
gate today. The new built into the old.
posted by Lada @ 5:48 AM
1 Comments:
so true. grace manages to be mundane, surprising, ever-adept scavenger.
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