The holidays are upon us and the new year is fast approaching. The global population, drunk with Covid exhaustion, is gearing up to face 2021 with anything other than a frown. Any other year, people would have been rushing around, hopping from one party to the next, smoothly transitioning from Christmas cheer to New Year madness and getting ready to attend the numerous functions that pop up everywhere you turn. However, 2020 has proven to be different – but not too different.
While Christmas certainly brings about endless parties and gatherings, there’s really nothing quite as grandiose as New Year celebrations. There’s just something about New Year’s Eve functions that are just over the top that makes people want to really double down and enjoy themselves, not to mention the big year-end bashes that happen, advertised within an inch of their life.
However, understandably, 2020 has proven to be the exception to the infallible consistency of the New Year’s Eve bash, a tradition many experience in their own way. This time around, we are seeing far fewer celebrations – considering how nearly all of Colombo’s major hotels have chosen not to hold their annual Year end parties – and people have opted for private functions and closer-knit celebrations.
The country went into a second lockdown not too long ago, just as the festivities set in, and the timing has made it so that there was certainly a Christmas high for everyone with cabin fever to sweat it out, but a general lull is fast approaching as we near the 31st.
Roadblocks to the party
Especially in Colombo, when we spoke to a few people who have made it a tradition to attend the New Year’s Eve parties that happen at one of the major hotels, they shared that what they had hoped to do was go Down South to rent a villa and have a party on a smaller scale.
Ashwini DeMel, a marketing consultant working at a reputed Colombo-based advertising firm, shared that usually around this time, she and many of her colleagues would be gearing up to attend a New Year’s Eve party and to pretty much “party into the new year”. However, she said that this year, they might travel out of town, but they have concerns with regard to the random testing that is to be carried out for those who will be leaving the Western Province.
Police Media Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana stated earlier in the week that they will be carrying out random rapid antigen testing procedures on people leaving the Western Province, with the aim of controlling the spread of Covid-19 outside the province. He said these random rapid antigen tests are carried out in the areas of Kochchikade on the Colombo-Chilaw Main Road, Nittambuwa on the Colombo-Kandy Main Road, Kosgama and Salawa on the Colombo-Ratnapura Main Road, and Beruwala on the Colombo-Matara Main Road.
Year-end lockdown in the cards?
We spoke to Naomi Jacobs, an associate at a Colombo-based law firm, who shared she personally does not go all-out for New Year’s Eve – which for her is reserved for her family and therefore they would often have a quiet lunch or dinner on the 31st. She said they had made some late Christmas plans for her extended family to go out for dinner together, which has been a yearly tradition for them; however, they are concerned whether they will be able to follow through on these plans, despite having made a majority of the relevant payments. She worries about there being a lockdown, much like what is happening in some countries in Europe.
It would seem that many are concerned with the possibility of a late lockdown, with the majority acknowledging that while it would be prudent of the Government to issue a lockdown, they hope that this would not be the case – but the uncertainty leaves them unable to make any solid plans.
Nivedha Hariharan, an attorney practising in the Colombo Courts, shared that from what she has heard, due to this uncertainty, the people that she knows – and she herself – has chosen to not really go out this year, but to have a muted celebration with the family – something home-based.
New year, new norms
A number of others also shared that “for once it looks like we will be welcoming the new year with our sobriety intact”, with others noting that it may be a good thing for everyone to experience something other than the norm, and possibly set the one for 2021. The majority of the people we spoke to all expressed that they only hope to be rid of the pandemic, and for everyone who has been affected to make a quick recovery.
They added that while there is not much to be expected from the possibility of a vaccine reaching the common folk in our country, they are hopeful that a solution will soon be made public and accessible.
