New Year @AJRyter on Wattpad

New Year's Day (Jan. 1st) Celebrated by students and faculty who have not gone home for Christmas Vacation.

The day begins with the New Year's wake up call at midnight exactly, although most students have taken to staying up until midnight to watch the festivities on television. Students who are new to the party aren't told about this part because no matter where they are, what they are doing or what they are wearing (even if it's pj's) they must drop it immediately and follow the parade. Everyone has noise makers as they march the castle grounds making as much noise as possible until they reach the court yard, which is lit by ware lights, and floating lanterns. There the game begins; Hobble Hook!

In Hobble Hook students use Hobblers, curved sticks with special grooves, to launch discs hoping to hook them to marked posts and score. The grooves are made to help catch the discs when passed from team member to team member. Teams can consist of as many players available (including one on one) and any number of teams can play, from two or more. Usually teams are broken up by house making four teams but teams are sometimes chosen at random. The first team to one thousand points wins. Students are allowed to fly, use magic or trickery to distract an opponent but a disc must be launched from the hobble and stay hooked on the peg to count. Discs can be knocked off by other teams (causing that point to be lost) but only by another disc. Hobble Hook can go on all night and usually does. If by breakfast no one has made it to one thousand then the team with the highest score is declared the victor. This game is traditionally only played on New Year's because it was created on the day by a group of older students who wanted to stay up after the parade until breakfast.

After a breakfast of up-and-at-'em-pancakes (a special recipe to perk everyone up known only by the school cooks) students and faculty share their New Year's resolutions and wishes, then write them down on slips of paper and throw them into the air like confetti. Everyone than runs as far away as they can get until the count of ten before stopping and picking up a slip of paper. If they don't find their own, their wish will come true or their resolution will be kept. If they do find their own, then it's better luck next year.

This is followed by the sack race, the piggy back run, the human wheel barrow race and lunch. Ater lunch comes another game of Hobble Hook. The game ends at the end of the day when fireworks go off to mark the end of the celebration.