Old New Year’s Day
Feast of St. Basil the Great (Orthodox)
Enjoy the Company of Grandparents and the Elderly
About Old New Year’s Day
Cozydown draws to a close with Old New Year’s Day, a special outing in honor of the people who knew you when you were still afraid of the penguin exhibit. Today, we make time for the elders in our lives: grandparents, longtime neighbors, great-aunts, honorary uncles, the former kindergarten teacher who still sends birthday cards. We take them somewhere easy, familiar, and filled with life. Preferably the zoo. There, among napping bears and socially dysfunctional meerkats, we share a churro and get re-acquainted with our elder friends.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Call or video chat with an elder you admire. Ask one question that prompts a story; let them talk as long as they want.
(B) Recommended
Visit a zoo, aquarium, or conservatory with someone from an older generation. Move slowly. Let them tell you things you didn’t know you needed to hear. Take photos. Buy a soft pretzel.
(C) High effort
Host an intergenerational field trip. Coordinate with a local retirement center, extended family, or community group and take a full crew of elders to the zoo. Bring snacks, gloves, folding chairs, and a laminated map. Let everyone choose a spirit animal.
Inspiration
The zoo is ideal because it does most of the conversational heavy lifting. You don’t need to explain TikTok or debate the merits of oat milk or learn, in excruciating detail, about knee replacements. You just watch baboons prank each other while you share a paper tray of fries. The animals go about their daily routines—some active, some asleep—and slowly, the rhythm of it all starts to feel familiar. Perhaps your elder companion once brought you to the zoo, and now you’re pushing their wheelchair past the flamingo pond. Generational symmetry, plus the miracle of giraffes. In Orthodox traditions, January 14 marks the Feast of St. Basil the Great, a fourth-century bishop known for his intellect and general overachievement in the realm of community care. He championed generosity, especially toward the poor and elderly, and helped shape monastic life with a focus on humility and service. Old New Year’s Day takes its name from the Julian calendar’s New Year (still observed in some Orthodox and Eastern European cultures), but for us, it’s less about historical chronology and more about emotional timing: a final day of reflection before the brass section of Carnival Advent kicks in.
Adornments
Watch
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
A musical portrait of family life unfolding across the seasons in turn-of-the-century St. Louis. The Smith household—four daughters, a mischievous brother, and two attentive parents—prepares for the 1904 World’s Fair while navigating the everyday dramas of courtship, childhood, and change.
Up (2009)
A widowed balloon salesman fulfills a long-postponed promise to his late wife by flying their house to South America, only to discover he’s acquired a stowaway: an earnest young boy scout seeking a merit badge for assisting the elderly. What begins as a flight of mourning becomes an unexpected partnership across generations.