Although not technically a holiday of obligation, my family always heard mass during New Year's Eve. Always a week after Christmas, the gospel reading had always consistently been about the circumcision of Christ. I've always been curious why this was so and whether the Church could have chosen another passage to coincide with the first day of the Gregorian calendar. I've since then realized that circumcision is a very symbolic rite of passage in the Jewish belief system (and in many others, in fact), but it's still not the most comfortable thing to think about, because honestly, I can't imagine being annually circumcised, even symbolically.

It could also be metaphorical, I think, in that we always symbolically lose something in the transition between years. We get to start a new year clean (and a few ounces lighter), still smarting from loss. The metaphor falls short on one thing though, because as far as I know, it's not very probable for foreskin to grow back. This is a good thing though, because I really can't imagine getting circumcised more than once in my life. It is with regret that I realize that I just spent the last few minutes of 2005 talking about penises.

Happy New Year!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -