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The log of Governor Aiden Coyle. 1st January 618: I have had an interesting discussion with Kaan about our westerner's celebration of New Years Day on January 1st. When he saw our late night celebrations and firing of muskets and cannons at the first stroke of midnight on January 1, he approached me inquisitively wondering what it was we were celebrating. When I told him it was the new year, he looked puzzled. He then told me that the Nayamon have a similar tradition but instead celebrate the new year on what Corrington scientists call the vernal equinox which is mid-march on our western calendars. He then asked me to explain why we believed the new year began today instead of the day the Nayamon believed it started. Try as I might, I had no answer for him. In fact, the thought had never occurred to me what determined the beginning of the new year other than it being the first of January. I admitted my ignorance to him and asked him more about the Nayamon tradition. Kaan then proceeded to tell me that they would heap large piles of sticks in a conical fashion and as the sun began to set, they would light the them and then dance in a circle around them once for every year old they were. He said this was to commemorate the journey of Terran, which was their term for earth, as it completed its cycle around Solaris which was their term for the sun. As they danced around the bonfires, they would sing the songs of the history of their people. I queried about the difficulty it must be for the very aged having to dance around the fire so many times. Again Kaan looked at me with a puzzled expression. "Not at all," he replied. "They have had all those years of practice it is but, as you westerners put it I think, a walk in the park."
