January 2026

Happy New Year! It’s the year of the horse and we’re starting off running with a brand new ZINE brought to you by Givelle and Tom. They go into detail about how they celebrate the new year from both a Latin American and English perspective. So, come check it out below and enjoy the 1st edition of the Mikan maga(ZINE) for 2026!

Givelle Powell Morales (She/Her)

Miami —> Kihoku

Tom McKiernan (He/Him)

London —> Iyo-Hojo

NEW YEAR, NEW CYCLE

Time, Traditions, and the Art of Beginning Again

By: Givelle Powell Morales

Hard Rock Hollywood Guitar shooting out fire works. By Sun Sentinel

⏳ “An Hourglass Turned Over”

What does New Year’s mean to you personally?

It should be about a new beginning, right? Honestly, it’s more of a “wow, it’s a new year, and now I am older”. In that sense, I guess it is like a reflection. A reflection of the past years. Like, was 2016 really 10 years ago? Some of my elementary school students were born after that, and it still blows my mind. As you get older, time just really seems to
slip away.

The new year reminds me of that. An hourglass that turned to its new cycle.

🧹 CLEAN SLATE ENERGY

My perfect New Year’s Eve

A perfect New Year doesn’t happen in one night, it takes days of preparation.

I’m Latina, and before anything else, the house has to be clean. Deep clean. Floors, corners, even sweeping out the front door to push out bad energy. It’s exhausting, but necessary. You wouldn’t want to keep the same energy from last year. Toxic much? Got to invite peace, love and hopefully money to travel.

One tradition I keep just for myself is showering before midnight. It’s my way of washing off the past year and starting fresh. I also follow the tradition of colored underwear, where each color symbolizes a wish for the year ahead.

By midnight everything is ready:

A suitcase by the door (to invite travel)
Twelve grapes, one for each month to give out good luck.

Shoes on. Because when the clock hits 12:00 a.m., you eat the grapes and run. The farther you run, the farther you’ll travel.

🍽️ TASTE OF HOME

One food that must be on the table

New Year tastes like nacatamales,

we normally cook a lot, but my favorite thing for New Year’s is Nacatamales. It’s a long process to make it, so we usually buy it from the tamales lady. I learned how to do it twice, and my mother was over my shoulder the whole time. Basically, it’s two different types of masa, corn dough, one is spiced, and the other is not. You can have different fillings inside, but usually it’s rice, potatoes, peas, chicken/pork/beef, sometimes an olive. It depends on who makes it. I am not a big fan of pork or olives, so mine is usually chicken. It’s cooked in banana leaves. It’s very different from Mexican tamales because it’s bigger with different types of fillings. It is a usual staple to eat in Honduras, so we try to get them when we can find someone who actually makes it well.

🎶 LOUD LOVE

How the New Year is welcomed

Quiet? Never.

It’s a party, always. Just like Christmas. Everyone gathers at someone’s house, dressed up just to sit on the couch and talk for six hours. The party starts at 6:00 p.m., but no one arrives before 8:30 pm or 9:00 pm. It lasts usually until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. Depends on who is hosting and when the guest decides to leave. I was usually begging to leave around 2:30 am. It is very loud. There is music and an asada (barbecue) and lots of food. I cook a lot for the holidays. It’s one of my favorite things about holidays is cooking a lot of food. I think I am at least decent at making some food. Everyone plays games and waits until the countdown begins, then after it’s over, there is even more music. One of the fun things that we did at home was burn fireworks at the end of the driveway. The great thing about America is that fireworks are readily available almost anywhere.

🕛 THE MOMENT

Does timing matter

Everything happens at midnight.

We watch the ball drop live on TV, shout Happy New Year, hug, celebrate (RUN OUT THE DOOR) and then immediately go back to eating.

As tradition demands. Never break the tradition.

📚 RESOLUTIONS: HONESTLY?

Resolutions are very American, we make them every year. Keeping them is another story.

Last year, I actually kept one. I read and listened to over 20 books, and I’m proud of that. One kept promise is better than ten forgotten ones. There are multiple ones that are always the same, lose weight and travel. This year I made my resolutions super simple. Visit at least 2 prefectures, learn to make Queso Fresco and maybe read or listen to at least 15 books and try to pass N4 (Fingers and toes crossed). If I lose weight while I run around? That is just a plus.

🌏 MORE THAN ONE NEW YEAR?

I only officially celebrate January 1st, but I’ve been lucky to experience other cultures. Growing up in Miami, celebrating Lunar New Year was easy festivals, food, parades. There was always something going on somewhere. It felt like stepping into another world for a night.

🧳 THE SURPRISE FACTOR

What shocks visitors the most?

The traditions; especially the suitcase.

I know I look ridiculous running down the block with an empty suitcase, but it works. Last year, I ran… and ended up in Japan. The year before? Virginia, D.C., New Orleans and Honduras.

Coincidence? I Don’t think so.

⛩️ WHAT’S NEXT?

One tradition I want to try is visiting a shrine. I didn’t go this year, I didn’t have anyone to go with and I am a very shy person, but next year, I will. Maybe, I will go with some new friends. Some traditions wait until the timing feels right.

Tom McKiernan

What does New Year’s mean to you personally? Is it more about celebration, reflection, or fresh starts?

I have never had a personal relation to New Year traditions and to be honest I always thought the “New Year, new me” was a load of bollocks. The cynical bastard in me used to think that if you need the excuse of a calendar year ending to become a better person, then you were already done for. “New Year, same me” sounds far more genuine.

I like to think of un-conventional New Year’s Resolutions that don’t just focus on health and other self-help goals, and subvert the usual meaning of New Year’s Resolutions all together. For example, “This year I want to give up running. I don’t ever want to run. Unless I’m being
chased…then I don’t really have a choice. In 2026, I am not going to run unless I am being chased, because you don’t have a choice if you are being chased right? This year I am going to give up running by choice.” Or maybe you want to learn an arbitrary, and ultimately useless skill? “This year I want to learn the art of Mongolian throat singing. I don’t know, I just really think 2026 is going to be my year.”

Because the likelihood of committing to or achieving a New Year’s Resolution is actually pretty low, I like the idea of doing something completely and utterly silly. Well actually I think being more silly is non-ironically a good new years resolution… But this year I want to stop being a cynic…ironic I know. In all seriousness, New Years to me is definitely about all three: celebration, reflection, and fresh starts. Whether I like it or not, they have always been a part of my New Year’s traditions, and they normally follow each other quite naturally. Beginning with celebration, we cheers to the end of another year, we can purge the bad memories and glorify the good. After all, we made it through another cycle around the sun and are still here knocking about, so that’s worth having a drink for. When we get together to celebrate, the second stage ensues and we get a chance to reflect on the highs and lows of the year. We talk about what we are grateful for, the things we achieved, the places we’ve visited, the challenges we’ve overcome, and the changes that have come about our way.

Finally, and only naturally, do we think about the future. What was missing from last year? What do I want to achieve this time? How will I do it? Although I try to live in the present as much as possible, and try to view life as a natural unfolding of events, having a moment where we collectively decide to turn a page and start anew is a positive part of our culture. Especially nowadays when it feels like the world is speeding up faster and faster, it’s refreshing
to look back at what happened and to think ahead to new beginnings.

This to me doesn’t need to materialize into a physical goal or challenge to which I’ll punish myself for not committing too, but I think it’s important to be able to express the things you desire in life, and how you might set about achieving them. That to me is what New Year’s is about. In the space between years, not 2025 nor 2026, you are free of the past and master of the future!

How do you usually celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? Walk us through your perfect New Year!

For me and most of my friends back home in the UK, the Christmas holiday season is primarily spent with the family, but New Year’s is specially reserved for friends.

This means that all the pent up tension from the family functions are let out hedonistically on New Year’s Eve. Therefore, New Year is one of the biggest parties of the year. Whether that’s going to a firework show, having a party at your friend’s house, or squatting at a pub until the sun rises, for me, New Year’s has always been about going out with a bang. Living in the suburbs, this entails a pilgrimage into the other side of London for a two day shindig.

Although London is a big city and full of life, disappointingly, places tend to close earlier than you might expect, however, on New Year’s Eve the city stays awake and I always take full advantage of that.

Sometimes though, and especially as you get older, you just want to be surrounded by the people you love, and a night of dancing and socializing is too much of an effort. So a perfect New Year to me is spent with your best friends doing whatever the hell you want. Whether that’s lighting 10 year old fireworks, realizing they no longer work, and cleverly letting them off in your hands as you catch second degree burns, or talking about the good ol’ days with your pals, or simply just watching a movie and having a sleepover. I don’t think I’ve ever been or even watched it on the telly, but this is what midnight looks like in Central London:

I think the most important thing is keeping the people you care about close. The people you want to bring with you into next year.

Oh I almost forgot! I guess it’s tradition that you share a kiss on the first second of the new year, good luck or summin? If you haven’t got a partner, give your mate a wee peck on the cheek or a big smooch on the lips. I don’t care.

What’s one food or drink that must be part of your New Year celebration? Why is it important in your culture?

A bottle of buckfast and a kebab. Or if you are with some fancy folk, maybe a bottle of bubbly?

Does your culture believe in good-luck traditions for the New Year? (Certain colors, foods, actions, or things to avoid!)

No I don’t believe in good luck or bad luck, or superstitions generally. I always walk over three drains.

Although since moving to Japan I do appreciate the change in traditions surrounding New Years which I’ve now been exposed to. Visiting a shrine on the first day of the year and making a wish/prayer, watching the first sunset, etc., are all essentially good luck traditions, and I have welcomed them into my life now.

New Year in Japan is especially interesting to me. Japan is a unique country in the fact that religion and tradition are flexible and intertwine with each other. For example, many Japanese people will visit a temple or shrine on New Year’s Day, some will even pray, but many of those people will not identify with a religious belief.

It shows that tradition is more important in Japan, and that these traditions are woven into the fabric of daily life rather than in people’s belief systems. As someone who does not practice religion, and comes from an increasingly secular country, I admire the fact that tradition is strongly followed in Japanese culture without the dogma of religion itself.

This year I spent New Year’s in Kumamoto, I visited the city’s Fujisaki Hachimangu Shinto shrine at around 2:30am and I was surprised to see how busy it was, not just with young people, but families with their children, markets selling food, and people lining up to pray. I joined the line and the New Year tradition.

What’s the most memorable New Year you’ve ever had? What made it so special?

The first new year memory that came to mind was actually last year, going into 2025, because I spent it in Czechia out of all places, and I wasn’t in Prague.

I was in the second largest city called Brno. If I’m honest, I ended up here because I didn’t have enough money for the capital. But I was pleasantly surprised with the Bohemian charm of this smaller city, and although it wasn’t filled with the firework shows and the festive mega-markets as you would find in Prague, I was able to enjoy what felt like a local New Year experience in Czechia.

Brno was indicative of an old central European city, characterized by its gothic cathedrals, bohemian architecture, market squares, ancient taverns and pubs, and mysterious charm.

On New Year’s Eve, we found ourselves in a small pub outside of the city centre called Duck Bar, they seemed to specialize in creating an unconventional and quirky experience. In typical Czech fashion, the only foods they sold were pickled or fermented. When we walked in it felt as if we had intruded into a family gathering because not only was everyone staring at us, but everyone had brought with them tupperways of home made snacks, chlebíčky (open-faced sandwiches) and jednohubky (bite-sized rolls) with spreadable pates and other pickled assortments. But we were welcomed in because this was New Year tradition in this town, so we grabbed a couple steins of beer and sat outside around a fire with a small view of the city below.

I’m sure we took shots of Becherovka and some other identifiable Czech liquor before we watched the fireworks in the distance to mark the coming of the new year.

Now the mood was merry, we ended up sliding back down the icy hills towards the city in search of some music. After making an expensive mistake of entering the wrong club, we found our way into an underground techno club. And I don’t use the underground to make it seem cooler than it was. I mean it was underground and you weren’t allowed to leave, so it was bloody suffocating. But when it’s snowing outside in -5 weather, you can endure more claustrophobic suffocation than you might think. We danced until the morning came and trudged back through the snow that had built up overnight to our airbnb. It was memorable in its randomness and manicness, and I probably wouldn’t do it again, but I’m glad we did it.

Some memorable food we ate in Brno:

Garlic soup, sausage with mustard and bread, and beef tripe soup

Are New Year’s resolutions a big thing for you or your culture? Why or why not

As you can probably tell, New Year’s resolutions have never been a big thing for me, but this year I resolved to change that.

While thinking about these answers I remembered that some of the only serious resolutions I ever made were about my strongest desires in life, things that I believed would make me into the kind of person I wanted to be. But in truth, I never really committed to those resolutions, and in a way I haven’t taken those personal goals seriously enough. That’s why, ultimately, I think New Year’s resolutions are a powerful and positive aspect of my culture because it gives you a bench-mark to measure your own self-development. When I do that, I realize I’ve been a lazy git. But that’s a good thing, I think. So this year, it’s time to stop being a lazy cynical git and time to crack on! (I say that every year!)

Hey, Mikans!

We hope you’re enjoying this month’s ZINE. If you have a story to tell, an idea to share, or just want to contribute we’d love to hear from you!

We’ll have a new maga(ZINE) post for you on the first of each month, so keep an eye out!

Interested in having your own ZINE? Reach out to us at themikanblog@gmail.com!