Since 1999, a group of Peterborough residents have come together to create a space for people reflect on the year that has passed and the year coming ahead.

The New Year’s Labyrinth will return to the Peterborough Town House on Tuesday, Dec. 31. The labyrinth will be open to the public from 1 to 8 p.m. Dec. 31 and  8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 1.

Admission is free, and donations will be accepted to help cover the cost of materials. Volunteers are welcome to help create the labyrinth from 9 to 11 a.m. on Dec. 31 and remove the labyrinth starting at 5 p.m. on Jan. 1. 

Last year was the 25th year of the Peterborough labyrinth. 

“It started on New Year’s Eve 1999, at the turn of the century and the turn of the millennium,” said Shelley Goguen Hulbert, one of the original creators. “It was Terry Reeves, Beth Corwin and myself. We were talking about creating a special meditative walk to create meaning at turn of year and the millennium, and we came up with the labyrinth.” 

During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the labyrinth took a different form and moved outside.

Goguen Hulbert said she and Reeves learned to lay out a labyrinth after a Children in the Arts event at Putnam Park.

“It’s simple, but there is a procedure you have to go through. Just looking it at, you would probably not be able figure it out,” Goguen Hulbert said. 

Goguen Hulbert, Corwin and Reeves put the word out to friends, and more than a dozen people turned out to lay out the first labyrinth on the floor of the Peterborough Town House in 1999. 

“Beth was a PE teacher; she knew about stretchy vinyl gymnasium tape! We drew it out in chalk, and then we taped on top of it. It takes a lot of people to get it done,” Goguen Hulbert said. 

Goguen Hulbert said transforming the Peterborough Town House into a sacred space for a few days is a natural fit.

“We know that ley lines cross on Mount Monadnock, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of those run through the Town House. As soon as people walk in, they know it’s a sacred space, a place for quiet reflection. We want every age to come, especially children, but we want people to be respectful and understand that this is a quiet space. It’s not a place for running and yelling, and kids usually just know to be respectful,” Goguen Hulbert said. 

Goguen Hulbertt notes that a labyrinth is not the same thing as a maze.

“You’re not going to get lost,” she said. 

About 300 people typically visit the labyrinth between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The Town House labyrinth is a life-size replica of the one at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France. The labyrinth measures 42 feet in diameter, with a path about 860 feet from the entrance to the center. 

“You walk your own pace; you can go around someone if they are going really slow. There may be up to 20 or 30 people walking through the labyrinth at one time,”  Goguen Hurlbut said. “There is just something amazing about the labyrinth. Kids really engage, they are just in the moment.”

Goguen Hurlbut also said  “there are just many metaphors” in a walk through the labyrinth. 

“You be walking alone an encounter people you don’t expect, or your may be walking with your family and end up on different paths. You never know who you will meet on your path,” she said. “Sometimes you end up on ‘opposite sides of the world’ from your family.”

Visitors to the labyrinth are welcome to leave comments in a guest book. 

“I love this way to transition out of one year and into the next – welcoming the light into the New Year,” one visitor wrote in 2023. “Thank you.”