And a Happy New Year to everyone! Christmas is finally tidied away – three months approaching, and less than three days disappearing. The days have started to lengthen again (yes, honestly, they have) and we can start looking forward to seeing warmer days.

As January 2^nd is still within the holiday period, this month we are holding the Drop-in a week later, on Thursday January 9th, from 10.00am till 11.30am at Burnby Hall as usual.

All who were able to attend thoroughly enjoyed our “Midwinter Music” event last month, which displayed the wealth of musical talent we have in the P&D. Heartfelt thanks to all who participated and helped to make the afternoon such a joyful success; we have already agreed to repeat it next Christmas, and perhaps stage something similar in the summer. Watch this space!

The next date for your diary is Saturday, January 18^th, when our various arts and crafts groups will be hosting a day’s exhibition at Burnby Hall. Admission is free, and open to the public (so tell your non-u3a friends and family!) There will be plenty to see and admire, and we hope to have a good attendance.

January is a time for looking back as well as forward, and it seems an appropriate time to think of members we have lost over the last year. As you probably know, when we receive information of a member’s passing, it is our policy to notify Group Leaders and ask them to pass on the news if he or she was known to them. Inevitably, we aren’t always aware of or up to date with news, and are sorry when we don’t have the chance to acknowledge losses. I’d like to mention particularly two of our longstanding members, who had given a lot to our organisation. First, Pauline Carter, who was a Group Leader, a committee member and took the Chair in 2015/16. Pauline died after being taken ill on a flight home from visiting family in Australia in November. Secondly, Evelyn Gadsen, a founder member who was the first to put up her hand and volunteer to be a Group leader at the very first meeting of the u3a in Pocklington. A keen and knowledgeable leader of the Bird-watching Group for many years, Evelyn died in October after a period of ill-health.  They, and all others who are not with us any longer, will be widely missed.

There isn’t, of course, very much other news this month, as most groups break for the holiday season. I’ve been looking into New Year trivia and customs; it’s a time that seems to be marked with peculiar traditions all over the world.  From jumping off a chair in Denmark, to bashing a loaf of bread on your neighbour’s door in Ireland, many of the customs seem to involve noise, destruction and general bonkersness! So as every other paper and magazine seems to fill the space with quizzes at NewYear, I’ve put together one for the P&D. No prizes, I’m afraid. And you’ll find the answers at the end of the letter.  

1. What should your tall dark Scottish first-footer bring with him?
2. When is New Year’s Day celebrated in the Gwaun Valley in South Wales?
3. Why was Janus, after whom the month is named, peculiarly fitted for his job as doorkeeper to the Greek gods?
4. Which dietary movement was first started in January 2014?
5. Who had an audition on January 1^st, 1962, with Decca Records – which rejected them?
6. Why, in many countries, shouldn’t you eat lobster at New Year?
7. In Spain, what should you eat twelve of at the strokes of midnight?
8. The first ever episode of the Archers went out on New Year’s Day – but which year?
9. In Greece, families throw a fruit to the floor and bash it into 13 pieces with a spoon. Which fruit?
10. Who began writing his famous diary on New Year’s Day in 1660?

Whether you have indulged in any strange customs or superstitions, made any resolutions, or are just glad to ring in a new year’s opening, all your u3a Committee wish you a very happy new year. May 2025 bring you all you hope for and, of course, more opportunities to live, laugh and learn!

Answers to the quiz.

1. Bread, salt and coal
2. January 13^th
3. He had two faces – to see in front of and behind him.
4. Veganuary
5. The Beatles
6. Because lobsters move backwards – so it means your luck will move away from you!
7. Grapes (It doesn’t count if they’re fermented and in a glass!)
8. 1951
9. A pomegranate.
10. Samuel Pepys.