They believed that every year has its own spirit, and if you wanted the year to be good you needed to frighten it into submission from the beginning. So every New Year the Indians would gather to make all of the noise they could in order to frighten away evil spirits and motivate good spirits to action. That seemed at least as reasonable to me as flying reindeer, or a rabbit that lays colored chicken eggs. But mostly, we're trying to let the new year know who's in charge. And that isn't such a bad idea, when you stop and think about it.
New years can be a little scary, filled as they are with hidden traps and unknown obstacles.
Maybe if we set out anxiety aside and enter the New Year boldly, aggressively, noisily, we'll convince ourselves that there's nothing to fear. So don't go gently into 2001. Pound on some pans. Bang on a bucket. Raise a ruckus.