Happy New Year!

The BBC camera crew really outdid themselves this year. Happy 2026! 🎆

It is that time of the year when everyone wishes everyone a happy new year. I had always done so myself, until 1990, assuming it was — let’s say — universal.

But did you know that Judaism once recognized four different New Years — not just one?

I didn’t, when I arrived in Israel in 1990 and discovered that December 31 meant very little there. It was only my second month in the country, as a new immigrant — not Jewish, but married to an Israeli — and no one seemed to care. I also had no idea we were actually in the year 5751, or that the New Year had already taken place back in September.

Overall, I felt happy, though some days were less bright than others. On Christmas Day itself, for example, sitting in Hebrew class — a regular day for most of the country — I felt a quiet sadness. I missed the familiar festive atmosphere I imagined my French compatriots were enjoying, even though our own dysfunctional family never did much to mark the holiday.

In Tel Aviv, there were no signs of Christmas. Nothing like today, with Christmas markets in South Tel Aviv’s old central station and Santa Claus dressed in blue — because he comes from Russia, not the US. Former Soviet Union citizens who arrived in Israel around the same time I did brought their cultures and traditions with them and were able to develop them, enriching Israeli society in the process.

Through them, I discovered Novi God — the secular New Year widely celebrated across the former Soviet Union, their main winter holiday, which had taken on many of the elements associated elsewhere with Christmas.

On a sunny Monday, December 31, 1990, while we were still in Hebrew class, my former USSR classmates arrived with cookies, fruit, chocolate, laughter, and song. Without knowing it, they filled me once more with brightness and life.

My ulpan experience was truly one of a kind. We learned that we could communicate without sharing a common language, offer support and warmth unconditionally, and sing our hearts out together every day at the end of class.

Wherever and however you are celebrating, I wish you a New Year filled with energy, positivity, health, love, and laughter. Happy 2026!