And another boozefest has arrived. New Year’s Eve.

Everyone is frantically organising parties and getting ready to get drunk again.

When you really think about it, it’s all a bit silly. It’s only a number after all.

Somewhere in the depths of history someone decreed that we should have a calendar and arbitrarily set months and the number of days in each month. So there is nothing special about tomorrow. The Earth will continue its rotation around the Sun without so much as a wobble [I hope]. They might have decreed that December had 30 days, and February had 29 [with 30 on a leap year, of course]. In which case, we would already be in the New Year.

There are four days in the year that are significant – the two solstices and the two equinoxes. The Druids had it right. They were days to celebrate because they had significance on the Solar scheme of things. But there is nothing significant about the 1st of January.

And what’s all this “Happy New Year” stuff? It implies that you are wishing someone well on a particular date, but that they can die of Galloping Knob Rot the rest of the time?

It would make more sense if we went around wishing people “A Happy Next Twelve Months”, but doing it whenever we fancy, whether it be January or July.

Of course this is the time of year we all get the old question – “Have you made any New Year Resolutions?”. I have only made one New Year Resolution in my life. That was around 1965. And I have kept it. I have never once broken it. That must nearly be a record. I resolved never to make another New Years Resolution.

There are a few significant things about tomorrow. It’s the start of a new tax year. It’s also the day you realise you’ve forgotten to buy a diary and the old one hasn’t any pages left, and the shops are sold out of new ones. It’s also the day I start a six month period of writing dud cheques. I will forget to date them all ’07.

What really p*ss*s me off is that I have only just gotten into the habit of dating cheques ’06.

So I’ll wish you all peace, prosperity, merriment, happiness or whatever. I think contentment is the best wish.

But I wish these on you all the time. Not just because tomorrow I’ll start screwing up cheques.