Waverly Fitzgerald has a wonderful essay about the meaning of the Spring Equinox (the first day of Spring) on her website. In it, she describes a planting ritual you can use this week. She writes:

Several years ago, my family celebrated with a very simple but effective ritual, based on the ceremony suggested by Nancy Brady Cunningham in “Feeding the Spirit.” Each person chose a seed or bulb that was meaningful to them. We blessed the seeds with a prayer from Campanelli: “Now is the dark half of the year passing, Now do the days grow light, and the Earth grows warm. I summon the spirit of these seeds which have slept in darkness. Awaken, stir, and swell! Soon you will be planted in the earth to grow and bring forth new fruit. Blessed be!” We sat quietly and visualized our plants in full bloom. Then we invoked each of the four elements necessary for the plants’ growth. We placed the seeds in a pot of soil and patted down the earth, poured water on it, breathed on it to represent air and held the pot over a candle (or up to the sun, if outside) to represent the element fire (the warmth of the sun).

Add another layer of meaning to this ceremony by choosing seeds that represent the things you want to grow during the new year–wisdom, understanding, patience, etc. Visualize those qualities coming into full bloom in your life as you plant your seeds.