Well, here we are a few days into the new year of 2025 by the calendar currently in use around most of planet Earth. It looks like it could be quite a year.
I like to think of this period as the 'Season of the Soothsayers', people who make predictions for the coming year. Soothsayers have been around for thousands of years, although they arenSA国际影视传媒檛 called that anymore. Now they're usually called political pundits, talking heads, commentators or experts of some kind. Their job, because they are paid for their services, is to try to convince people that what is going on or going to happen is understandable and somehow reasonable.
The job and methods of a soothsayer has changed with changing times. When I was a kid, I read a book about ancient Rome and they talked about soothsayers. I had to go look them up in an encyclopedia because I had never heard of them before, and the internet hadnSA国际影视传媒檛 been invented yet. Apparently, in markets or near temples, soothsayers would set up stalls.
If someone wanted to know what would happen, things like when they should plant their crops, whether they should get married or invest in some scheme, they would go ask the soothsayer. Some, the lower ranks of predictors, would use dried bones, carved sticks, coins or tablets to throw on the crowd and read. Nobles and rich folks would go to the higher-level, more expensive soothsayers, who would slay a sacred animal and then read the steaming entrails. (Ok, I had to look up entrails, which are the intestines and internal organs of the animal).
Not only was the soothsayer paid for his services, but he often got to cook and eat the animal he had just read. I am sure more than one soothsayer would say it beats working for a living. I concluded humans will do and believe the most bizarre things.
TodaySA国际影视传媒檚 modern soothsayers may be a little more refined, but the principle is the same.
Lots of other countries and cultures had soothsayers or some versions of them. As a kid I wondered how they came to develop such a system. In todaySA国际影视传媒檚 world, we do a lot of strange things which will be hard to explain decades or centuries from now.
Letting fireworks off on New YearSA国际影视传媒檚 Eve and singing Auld Lang Syne are examples of that. For years, I thought the song was about some person named Lang Syne who was old. Before fireworks became readily available, people used to rush outside at midnight and bang pots and pans together as they hollered at the night sky. This was theoretically to scare away evil spirits. Another practice decades ago was for people to take their guns outside and shoot into the night sky. Then along came electricity, power poles, electrical wires and transformers. When the power started going out on New YearSA国际影视传媒檚 Eve, the practice of letting guns off waned.
ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 one of the things about customs and traditions - they do change with time and necessity. One of my predictions for the future is that the days are numbered for fireworks, as we know them. They are expensive, noisy and cause a lot of pollution. Plus, fireworks factories have a bad habit of exploding, so in time they will be replaced by something else, and a new tradition will come into being.
Humans have been around for a long time and have come a long way since the Stone Age. LetSA国际影视传媒檚 hope we have the brains to adjust to the changing times and knowledge to make a better future, not just for ourselves but for the entire planet and solar system.
