New Year Rituals

When we were young, my mother had us clean our house from top to bottom on New Year’s Eve. She wanted us to ensure every inch of the house was clean, including every piece of laundry, to greet the New Year properly and bring us good luck in the upcoming year. My sister and I were not keen on this, especially in our teenage years in Canada, since we wanted to go out and party. Our home in Korea was so small — about the size of our shed so it didn’t matter much.

I am now the boss of our housecleaning department, so I’ve done away with that ritual, but the old habits die hard, and I find myself vacuuming and polishing the floors and checking every room for laundry on this day, December 30, 2023. Old habits die.