Have a Happy New Year?

Yes, that IS a question mark after the headline above.

Not a typographical error.

So, what’s up with the question mark?

Here we go…

I like and can live merrily with, Merry Christmas. Likewise, I like and can live joyfully with, Happy Hannukah.

Although originally celebrated for 12 days, Christmas currently is often a one eve and a day-long celebration. It is the birthday of Jesus Christ and is one of the biggest festivals across our globe. A day of joy. A day of deep gratitude and prayer. Families gather. Wonderful breakfasts and dinners served. Presents. Presents and more presents. Christmas is a festival of love. I can see people being merry for 24 hours. In fact, I have seen it my entire life.

Hannukah is celebrated for a full eight days. It is a festival of light that reminds us that our light, our brightness, our joyful souls shall always shine. This will be regardless of any and all internal or external opposition. We shall shine for even longer that we could logically imagine. Keep shining, that is the message of these holy days of light. This year’s celebration, even more so. The tragedy in Sydney has not and will not stop our lights from shining. So, be happy for eight days and beyond. As best you can, endure and with the support of loved ones and the connection to your Higher Power…keep shining!

Now, Have a Happy New Year? What’s my problem with this one?

Christmas is one day.

Hannukah is eight days. It’s a stretch but it’s just one day more than a week. Many of us can, with support and some effort, keep our lights going brighter than normal for eight days.

Have a happy New Year? A full 365 days of happiness? It is a wonderful thought, but in my decades here on earth, I’ve never seen anyone who could pull it off. Certainly, not me. It is sweet to say Have a Happy New Year. We’ve heard it our entire lives. Life isn’t that simple. Just like our weather, our year changes. Our days change, even our minutes. Sometimes subtly and sometime ferociously, and happiness is not always available. Our houses can burn down, old friends depart, we have moods, finances can rumble around in our brains, and I haven’t even mentioned the daily news and what that does to our day-to-day happiness.

So, Have a Happy New Year? I have a suggestion for all of us.

Few can ever be happy for the entire year of 2026, life is more complex than that. Try this one: Say, “Make it a very intentional New Year.” People might stop and look at you with a funny face and wonder what you’re talking about. And you can tell them something like this:

YOU: The best way I know how to be happy in 2026 is to be as intentional as I can be, every day, all year long.

THE OTHER PERSON: If I am more intentional in 2026, will that make me happy every day?

YOU: No, but it will minimize your hurtful words and behaviors that make no one happy, and it will maximize your positive words and behaviors which bring light into each moment.

Each of us has a part that leans toward joy, acceptance, curiosity, and connecting meaningfully with our beautiful world. And we also have a part that can be more reactionary, that judges, is hurtful, self-centered, angry and disconnects us from our beautiful world.

The two primary connecting ingredients are love and courage. Our distancing ingredients are rooted in old fears that have been hanging around for a long time.

There are two essential ways to move closer to the light, which is our most important job here on Earth: INTENTION and REPETITION. Through daily prayer, meditation, inspirational readings, learning with mentors, we can stay on our holy track of happiness.

It is not an easy road to travel. And it is worth every purposeful step we take.

Blessings to all of us on our intentional New Year!

Burt Gershater is a local counselor, leadership trainer, speaker and writer. He can be reached at burt@burtgershater.com

This article appears in the Source January 1, 2026.