This Thursday marks the beginning of a new year, which means that the celebration of that changeover will happen late Wednesday, on New Year’s Eve. The hours leading up to that eve are often referred to as New Year’s Eve Day, and the eve before that, New Year’s Eve Eve. The day before that, in theory, could be New Year’s Eve Day Eve Day — but for efficiency, let’s just call it Tuesday. Eves are to holidays what Fridays are to weekends: Occasions for indulgence in anticipation of yet more indulgence to come. While only some eves are recognized so widely as to be capitalized — The New York Times’s stylebook uses both “New Year’s Eve” and “Christmas Eve” — the circadian creep seems to have come for other holidays, too. Halloween now engenders an entire “Halloweekend,” replete with the costumed revelry once reserved for Oct. 31. Black Friday is no longer worth lining up or clicking for, as lesser sales now drag on for weeks on end. And lest anyone forget: It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere. The collapse of defined holiday borders tracks with our general trend toward instant gratification and the eternal “treat yourself” mentality. Why put off till tomorrow what can be an excuse to take off work today? Even the Games desk observes what could reasonably be called Crossword Eves, since each day’s puzzle is published the night before. (I delight in a late-Thursday Friday solve.) Maybe the holiday hurry has something to do with precision, because it’s only when the clock strikes midnight on your birthday that you can officially say you’re one year older. Only when the ball drops can “Happy New Year” be said in earnest. But what does this optimization amount to? Why are we biohacking special occasions? It may be an attempt to stave off the inevitable counterpart to the joyous eves of holidays, which is the blues that follow the day proper: post-vacation scaries on the plane home, a post-holiday slump that stretches endlessly on. Is there ever a point when we’re not either grieving a special date gone by or prematurely celebrating one that comes next? Years ago, a friend told me that if you never go to sleep, it’s always the same day. In kind, it may be that every day before the holiday is the eve of an Eve’s Eve, down to the nth Eve, back to “Adam and.” So, solvers, I hope it’s not too early for me to say that it’s been real, and that I’ve enjoyed exchanging notes with you this year on words, puzzles, proverbs, gameplay and all the rest. I’m looking forward to more fun in 2026 — which, if you stay awake, is sometime later today. Solve the Midi
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