Tip of the Month - January 2003

Symbolically, New Year signifies a renewal of life. Hence the spirit of celebration for the regeneration, while discarding the old and worn out. The customs and practices, though modified through the centuries, have still their distinctive strains in the ways we welcome each onrushing year.

In order to have a 'clean slate' on which to start the New Year, people in times past have made certain that they had all their borrowings cleared. Those were the days before such as complexities as purchasing on credit.

The New Year resolutions, which we are so fond of, represent other efforts to make the year brand new. In fact, we often say that in the New Year, we are 'turning over a new leaf.'