Happy New Year: kissing at 12 o'clock when you're single

THREE, TWO, ONE… Happy new yeaaaaar. Yesss, we survived another year (almost, that is). Super fun, yes, all the best wishes. And the fireworks are going off. And who am I with? Alone, yes, so festive. Yes, that midnight moment can literally be stolen from me, you know. Only from ten past twelve do I find it festive, because then it's my turn for the New Year's wishes and accompanying kisses. Before that, those first ten minutes of the new year are for the couples. Who wish each other a happy new year extensively and kiss sweetly as if they haven't seen each other for years. I make sure every year that I at least have a bottle of wine or champagne in one hand and a glass that can't be empty in my other hand.

Even worse, by the way, because it also seems to be the case that if you are single and you don't kiss someone at midnight, you are facing a lonely year. Hey, isn't that nice. No idea who invented that superstition, but I completely disagree with its existence. In Scotland, by the way, it works differently, there it's customary to give everyone in the room a kiss. Sounds much easier and much less intense than me immediately facing a huge lonely year otherwise.

By the way, that kissing at midnight is quite an old tradition. So old that we can trace it back to the Romans, who apparently loved a party. Including alcohol. And a lot of kissing, which they combine every year at the Festival of Saturnalia. And that party is most similar to what we now call New Year's Eve. So because the Romans couldn't stay away from each other back then, I have those lonely ten minutes that, if things go a little wrong, will also give me a lonely year. Thanks, Caesar. For nothing.

So maybe a last-minute trip to Scotland then? When I said they give everyone a kiss at midnight, I really meant everyone. So if you're in a pub there, it indeed means you have to go around the whole pub. Both men and women. Sounds almost like a complete evening program. And just hope that no one has mono or a severe cold. Or a sore throat. So maybe those lonely ten minutes after all? Choices, choices.