New Year Symbols and Their Psychological Meaning

The New Year is just around the corner, making this a perfect time to reflect on and integrate our experiences from the past year and our lives as a whole. At the same time, the end of the year brings a sense of hope. Through deep reflection and resolutions, we aim for optimization, improvement, and renewal. In this article, let's explore the symbols of New Year’s Eve and the psychological meanings behind them.

The New Year: The Rebirth Archetype

The New Year offers an opportunity to reflect on the past year and integrate both the good and the bad (the persona and the shadow), with the goal of entering the new year as a renewed, improved person. New Year’s celebrations are filled with joy, gatherings, and reflection. They are secular and nonreligious, in contrast with Christmas and other holidays. In fact, New Year’s Day can be seen as the secular counterpart to Christmas. After celebrating the divine and the magical, we return to earthly living, reflecting on our deeds as ordinary humans. We prepare to descend from the heavens, returning to ordinary life in a renewed or reborn form.

Past Year Reflections: Kairos or Meaningful Time

In Jungian psychology, we do not remember our past in chronological order. Instead, we organize our memories around meaningful moments, often minimizing, forgetting, or repressing unpleasant memories in our unconscious mind. Reflecting on the past year allows us to reorganize our memories in a way that aligns with our values. The Kairos archetype helps us shape our memories in ways that feel meaningful, regardless of how accurate they may be.

The Clock: Chronological Time and Memento Mori

In our minds, we create contrasts and meaningful moments, allowing our subjective perception of time to expand or shrink. In contrast, on New Year’s Eve, we gather around clocks, obsessively watching the time tick away. No matter how much we try, we cannot change the pace of chronological time. The New Year is coming, and we cannot control when it arrives. Metaphorically, the act of checking the clock serves as a Memento Mori: we are human, and we shall die.

The New Year’s Resolution: Aiming for Individuation

The New Year provides an opportunity for reflection and hope for a better future. Through New Year’s resolutions, we aim to materialize our desired improvements and commit to them. Going to the gym, finding love, traveling, or returning to school are common resolutions. In Jungian psychology, after a midlife crisis, we have a real opportunity for individuation, connecting with our true self and the divine. Resolutions, therefore, take on the role of individuation archetypes.

The Bells: Protection

Bells and other sounds, such as fireworks, are believed to scare away evil spirits. Bells have been used throughout history to celebrate new eras. For example, the bells tolling at Christmas signal the birth of Christ and the beginning of the Messianic era. The Liberty Bell rang before the Declaration of Independence was read in Philadelphia. Bells act as protectors, driving away evil forces and allowing us to enter the new year with purity. The bells rung just before the New Year protect us from evil as we step into the future.

The Cone Hats and Noisemakers: The Trickster

Cone hats allow us to regress and appear silly or playful, offering a form of lightheartedness. This type of regression during New Year’s celebrations helps us release the tensions of the ego caused by inner conflict. Wearing cone hats and using noisemakers help us manage tension and simply enjoy the moment. At the same time, the noisemakers scare away evil and provide a sense of protection as we enter the new year.

The 12 Grapes: Abundance

In Hispanic culture, it is traditional to eat 12 grapes during the last 12 chimes of the year, while watching the clock. The number 12 is considered magical, appearing in many important symbols, such as the 12 months of the year, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 disciples of Jesus, and the 12 steps in various organizations. Grapes symbolize abundance, as they represent the harvest. They are also used to make wine, a symbol of Dionysus, the god of celebration, ecstasy, and freedom.

The Lentils: Wealth

Italians traditionally eat lentils on New Year’s Eve to prepare for the year ahead. Lentils symbolize coins and wealth, the material abundance necessary for a good year. While wealth is often undervalued in psychological discussions, we must recognize that it brings opportunities. With money, we have more choices in many areas of life, which ultimately enhances our psychological well-being.

The Midnight Kiss: Love

At midnight, partners kiss each other, hoping for love, connection, family, and togetherness. Fertility has long been an obsession in human history; some of the earliest works of art were fertility goddess figurines. The midnight kiss represents our deep need for connection, love, fertility, and family. It symbolizes our search for meaning and transcendence as we unconsciously strive for immortality within the vast cosmic order.

The New Year’s Eve Ball: Incarnation of the Divine

Times Square in New York is the perfect setting for the New Year’s celebration. People from all over the world watch it on TV, reflecting on the duality of Chronos and Kairos, waiting for the moment when a huge ball descends from above into our world. This ball symbolizes the divinity descending from heaven to earth, the incarnation of the divine in our world. The concept of divine incarnation is present in many cultures. In Christianity, Jesus Christ embodies the divine becoming human. The Aztecs were awaiting the incarnation of Quetzalcoatl when Europeans arrived. In Hinduism, Krishna is the incarnation of Vishnu. The New Year’s Eve ball represents the importance of spirituality and the divine to guide our lives into the New Year.

Dr Forcen is the medical director for McLean’s Depression Residential Treatment Program located at the Lincoln Residence, focusing on innovative depression treatments. He is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and the creator of the psycho-podcast “El último humanista” of The Journal of Humanistic Psychiatry.