New Years Day in the Roman Calendar

New Years Day in the Roman Calendar

Published by T. Ó Domhnaill in General Blog · Thursday 01 Jan 2026 · 8:45
Tags: Crann, na, beatha, New, Years, Day, Roman, Calendar, traditions, celebrations, history, January, 1st, cultural, significance, holidays, festivities

First, the weather. It's cold and where I am on the U.S. east coast, they're predicting some minor snow fall for this Saturday coming. A minor hiccup for me as I will never forget the deep snows and extreme cold of Northern Maine this time of year. As it stands this season, Aroostook County, Maine has a few feet of snow on the ground as of today and the temps stay mostly in the subzero Fahrenheit range most days now. Out west, they're dealing with huge snowstorms and bitter cold from North Texas all the way up into Canada. The Pacific north west, to include British Columbia, has been experiencing flooding rains, causing evacuations in some places due to these Pacific Ocean rain bands coming in off the ocean.

This year, North America is experiencing a La Nina weather pattern from the Pacific Ocean. Which typically brings bitter cold and lots of snow in the winter months. The climate scientists are predicting an El Nino pattern next winter, which will bring in a warmer winter, which could cause more droughts and wildfires in 2027. But I'm getting ahead of things as we need to survive 2026 first.

And that is where we find ourselves in this so called, New Years Day 2026. Wondering with trepidation about the coming year. 2025 was a very tumultuous year and 2026 promises to be worse.

I watched the news as usual this morning and I have found some new independent news sources regarding the coming economic upheaval predicted this year. These noted experts are telling us the same thing. The United States is in dire straights as Trump continues his retribution themed presidency. The economy is fading, global corporations are starting to move their major operations to other countries, and the draconian deportations continue unabated.

What I am expecting, is for this to continue and get worse. With immigrant labour all but disappearing out of fear of ICE and the CBP, farm workers are leaving or hiding from the authorities, so produce, fruits and nuts are not being picked anymore. China stopped buying U.S. soybeans so the big corporate and independent farmers had to leave a lot of 2025's harvest unharvested, losing billions in dollars overall. This will ripple through the economy by next spring as these same farmers will be deciding whether to plant soybeans again or be forced to plant something else that may have a market value.

I watched one interview with a major Virginia farmer and he's more worried about paying January's house mortgage payment than spring planting. That's how bad it's gotten in the U.S. Farmers are more worried about being able to pay their basic monthly bills this winter than what they're going to plant next spring.

The rest of the country is in the same boat. There have been massive layoffs across all sectors of the labour market in 2025, and more are expected in early 2026.

My wife and I had another discussion yesterday about her possibly going back to work for a couple of years to earn her social security credits she needs before age 65. I had to tell her that the job market is especially bad right now and it would be even harder for her as an immigrant in the current political landscape. The only work she might be able to find, would be at a Chinese restaurant, which they're also having troubles keeping the doors open these days due the ICE raids.

I make enough money from my pensions, that she doesn't need to work but she won't gain her credits if she remains hiding at home. I have to wonder how many other immigrant families across the country are having similar conversations?

The uncertainty of 2026 is palpable everywhere. It's very quiet in my suburban neighbourhood today. Very few are out and about. The cold wind may have some to do with it but I have to think, people are worried about their immediate futures and trying to take the day and think about what lies ahead for all of us.

What I have taken away from 2025, is that no one is safe anymore. Whether it's from Homeland Security or from the economy, the end of 2025 left nearly everyone with a sense of dread and fear of the unknown as we head into 2026. The vast majority of Americans are now asking themselves, are they safe from losing their jobs, or will they have enough money with the rising costs of living to survive another month or even a week at a time?

Even a lot of politicians are becoming insecure about their jobs as voters typically vote with their wallets during election cycles. And the United States will be having a national vote next November. Not for president but for the control of the Congress.

The MAGA republicans are expected to try and subvert the election system to their favour with voting restrictions, gerrymandered state voting districts and purging voting records in states to prevent one political party from winning any congressional seats. They started this last year and a lot of us expect them to expand their efforts across the country. The president, a noted voting fraud conspiracy theorist, is expected to do whatever he can, legal or not, to keep his politicians in power. I fully expect this to get crazy by the end of next summer out of desperation.

Americans are fed up. They're scared and when they vote out of fear, they usually vote in huge numbers for the other political party. It's happened time and time again and the pollsters are predicting the next election cycle to be like that once more. The difference this year, is that the MAGA cult knows this and they're already at work to try and subvert the vote.

Between now and November, we'll probably be witness to Trump starting a limited war on South America, the end of the war in Ukraine, with the Ukrainians giving up their territory in the east to the Russians and the EU foaming at the mouth in rage as Russia consolidates its new client state, the Donbass region.

The Israeli-Palestinian problem will be ongoing, with more push back from Lebanon and Hamas. The settlers will continue to try and take over Gaza and the West Bank, and ethnically cleanse all of Palestine for themselves.

On top of all of that, we will probably see the EU collapse to a large degree as the western European countries continue to spat over supporting Ukraine, which is just a proxy war against Russia for them. With Trump backing off, and their fear of the Russians, they stand a good chance of bankrupting their economies as they attempt to build up their military's with no money.

I expect to see more large protests all over Europe and the U.S. in 2026 over affordability. That is usually what brings down governments. Especially in Europe.

I am expecting a recession in the U.S. and the cost of living to go through the roof by summertime. Along with that, will be a lot of angry people yelling at their local district representatives and senators about the economy.

For myself, I am planning for more weekend trips around the eastern part of the U.S. to take more photos as soon as the weather warms up. I wrote another chapter in my latest book, The Camps, last week, with more to come. I have made a promise to myself to quit procrastinating and to get busy writing this story. I've put it off long enough. I guess I was worried about the expense of self-publishing another book after what I went through with my first one.

I did learn some valuable lessons that I will apply to this one, once I'm finished that will help. But, no matter what it costs, I owe it to myself to finish the story for the sake of my characters and potential readers. That in itself is motivation to get cracking and write the story.

I'm very worried about what's going to happen to the United States in 2026. I don't have anything real positive to convey to anyone this year. All I can offer is for everyone to think about life closer to home. Take care of your family and neighbours, if you have any. I don't think things will get so bad that we have to retreat into our immediate family and close neighbour relationships totally but it may become pretty close to that for some places in the U.S. Take care of yourselves, your families and neighbours this year as they may return the favour should you need it in the months ahead. And a lot of you will need it, mark my words.

We're talking about expanding our vegetable garden this year, maybe some of you should consider doing the same. We can't depend on the farmers and government to be there for us anymore so we'll have to step up and try to fill the gaps as best as we can, with community gardens and personal kitchen gardens in our backyards to sustain us as supply chains may go down.

The end of U.S. world dominance is coming to an end, so, It's time we step in and take care of ourselves. Our lives may depend on that very soon.

Jump over to the podcast page to listen to this week's podcast about Super Flu and Covid, plus a bunch of other things and I'll talk to you again next week.

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