December 31, 2014
New Year’s Customs
It’s time once again for Father Time to make way for Baby New Year. As we look forward to 2015, we thought we would examine some of our favorite New Year’s traditions.
December, Meet January
As we all know, the name “December” means “the 10th month,” just as September, October, and November are the names of the 7th, 8th, and 9th months respectively (sept-, oct-, nov-, dec- being the prefixes referring to 7, 8, 9, and 10). Of course, the fact that those are actually the 9th through 12th months has to do with the Romans adding two months to the beginning of their original 10-month calender. Incidentally, once Quintillis and Sextillis (quin-, and sex-, referring to 5 and 6) were renamed to July (to honor Julius Caesar) and August (to honor Augustus), the names were pretty close to the names we know today.
Mensis Ianuarius, or Januarius, was the month added to the beginning of the year. It was named for the Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions. The name actually derives from the Latin word for “door” (the transition from one room to another). Janus presided over most anything with a beginning and an ending: war, births and deaths, and journeys. He was depicted with two faces: one looking forward to the future and one looking back to the past.
And so you see the theme of this newsletter: looking back at 2014 and looking forward to 2015. We are proud of 2014 and excited about 2015.
Father Time and Baby New Year
Father Time is that bearded, elderly gentleman who likes to end the year wielding a scythe and hour glass. The legend derives from Cronus, the Greek god of time and bears a passing resemblance to the Grim Reaper (although the Grim Reaper is typically depicted as a skeleton that does not carry an hour glass…although this year he may start wearing an Apple watch).
Baby New Year symbolizes the birth of the New Year. Every December, Father Time hands over the duties of presiding over the year to this innocent young baby. Poor kid: In a mere 12 months, Baby New Year will look as worn out as Father Time.
The Yule Log
Scholars debate the origins of this northern European tradition. Some argue religious significance; some argue it was all about staying cozy and warm. Either way, this large log (sometimes an entire tree!) makes a warm glow in the fireplace on a long winter’s night. For some, this tradition is kept alive in dessert-form by the baking of the yule log cake.
Retrospectives
Seems you can’t turn around without seeing someone recap the past year. Possibly this is because everyone wants to get one last use out of last year’s stories. (Editor’s note: Who, me?) We like to think it is nostalgia for those “fun” events that occurred while Baby New Year was growing up to become Father Time.
A quick look at the In the News page will show some of the milestones FairCom has reached this past year. For FairCom, 2014 has been a year of recognition throughout the industry.
Predictions
With virtually every TV show, website, and Twitter feed filled with prognostications for the upcoming year, we would be remiss if we omitted ours. This newsletter has mentioned FairCom’s predictions for 2015 in the article: Trends of 2015. You can find Evaldo’s views of the future in his Dataversity blog. And expect to see more articles from FairCom in the coming months.
The theme you will notice in 2015 is a convergence of NoSQL and SQL. FairCom is proud to be at the forefront leading the way with our unique No+SQL architecture.
Resolutions
So make your New Year’s Resolution to get to know all the FairCom product families: FairCom DB, FairCom EDGE, and c‑treeRTG.
And here’s wishing you a Happy New Year!