New Year every new season becomes a problem both for the celebrants themselves and for those around them.

The unstoppable bark of firecrackers, which begins long before New Year's Eve and does not stop for a long time after, discomforts a large number of people. And how much money and effort goes into preparing the celebration. In the last days and even hours before the holiday, queues for food and drinks form in supermarkets…

In fact, there is nothing wrong with celebrations, and there is no need to be a hypocrite here. Explaining to non-believers or people of little faith why it is not good to eat and get drunk during the fast is not a very grateful occupation. But after all, believers are also not far away from the rest. Many people spend most of their money on the celebration. And after all, what it’s spent on? On such a huge number of dishes that hardly anyone can appreciate their taste qualities. Especially on the second and third day (after all, it is just impossible to eat such an amount of food at once). And if we consider the huge amount of consumed alcohol, even worse. Isn't it a rather strange irrational behavior? And nevertheless, a lot of people celebrate holidays in that way.

Once upon a time, New Year's holidays, even secular ones, were a time of family communication, and foods were just something which accompanied the holiday. Now, it seems, an incredible amount of food and drink is becoming almost an end in itself. It's as if people try to fill the spiritual emptiness with satiety with viands, to compensate of the lack of spiritual warmth. But it doesn't work out very well. Because everyone expects something special from the arrival of the New Year. But in practice, many people meet the first day of the new year with an unpleasant feeling of a bighead and the realization that nothing has actually changed. All this is sad, of course.

But let's try to remember what the essence of the holidays is. Especially for us,  christians.

In fact, the New Year is just a transition from one time cycle to another. And not even one (after all, at the beginning of September we already celebrated the church's New Year). And for the Orthodox christians, it’s just a reminder of the upcoming Nativity of Christ, for which you need to prepare both physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Any holiday involves a feeling of joy, and this is the key moment. After all, joy is actually inside us. We just need to open it and certainly share it with your neighbors. And if, instead of spending huge amounts of money on overeating and drunkenness, we share it at least a little with those who lack them these days, it will bring joy not only to us. And it's not even about material goods.

Loneliness is felt more acutely during the holidays, therefore it is worth sharing your warmth with those who lack it: with forgotten elderly relatives, perhaps with lonely elderly neighbors — here everyone knows better who to help. But we definitely need to help. And then, the feeling of spiritual emptiness, along with an overflowing stomach, will be replaced by genuine spiritual joy.

Recorded by Natalia Goroshkova