Listen Text: New Years Day - Overview
New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on January 1st, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. January 1st is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. While most solar calendars (like the Gregorian and Julian) begin the year regularly at or near the northern winter solstice, cultures that observe a lunisolar or lunar calendar celebrate their New Year at less fixed points relative to the solar year.
In pre-Christian Rome, under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, the god of gateways and beginnings, for whom January is also named. From Roman times until the middle of the 18th century, the new year was celebrated at various stages and in various parts of Christian Europe on 25 December, March 1st, March 25th, and the movable feast of Easter.
In the present day, with most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their civil calendar, January 1st, according to that calendar, is among the most celebrated public holidays in the world, often observed with fireworks at the stroke of midnight following New Year's Eve as the new year starts in each time zone. Other global New Year's Day traditions include making New Year's resolutions and calling one's friends and family.
In pre-Christian Rome, under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, the god of gateways and beginnings, for whom January is also named. From Roman times until the middle of the 18th century, the new year was celebrated at various stages and in various parts of Christian Europe on 25 December, March 1st, March 25th, and the movable feast of Easter.
In the present day, with most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their civil calendar, January 1st, according to that calendar, is among the most celebrated public holidays in the world, often observed with fireworks at the stroke of midnight following New Year's Eve as the new year starts in each time zone. Other global New Year's Day traditions include making New Year's resolutions and calling one's friends and family.
History
The ancient Babylonian calendar was lunisolar, and around 2000 BC began observing a spring festival and the new year during the month of Nisan, around the time of the March equinox. The early Roman calendar designated March 1st as the first day of the year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. That the new year began with March is still reflected in some of the names of the months. September through to December, the ninth through to the twelfth months of the Gregorian calendar, were originally positioned as the seventh through to the tenth months. Roman mythology usually credits their second king, Numa, with establishing the two new months of Ianuarius and Februarius. These were first placed at the end of the year but, at some point, came to be considered the first two months instead.
The January calendar, the start of January, came to be celebrated as the new year at some point after it became the day for the inauguration of new consuls in 153 BC. Romans had long dated their years by these consulships, rather than sequentially, and making the kalends of January start the new year aligned with this dating. Still, private and religious celebrations around the March new year continued for some time, and there is no consensus on the timing for the new January 1st new status. Once it became the new year, however, it became a time for family gatherings and celebrations. A series of disasters, notably including the failed rebellion of M. Aemilius Lepidus in 78 BC, established a superstition against allowing Rome's market days to fall on the kalends of January and the pontiffs employed intercalation to avoid its occurrence.
The January calendar, the start of January, came to be celebrated as the new year at some point after it became the day for the inauguration of new consuls in 153 BC. Romans had long dated their years by these consulships, rather than sequentially, and making the kalends of January start the new year aligned with this dating. Still, private and religious celebrations around the March new year continued for some time, and there is no consensus on the timing for the new January 1st new status. Once it became the new year, however, it became a time for family gatherings and celebrations. A series of disasters, notably including the failed rebellion of M. Aemilius Lepidus in 78 BC, established a superstition against allowing Rome's market days to fall on the kalends of January and the pontiffs employed intercalation to avoid its occurrence.
Julian Calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in AUC 708 (46 BC), was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on 1 January AUC 709 (45 BC) by edict. The calendar became the predominant calendar in the Roman Empire and, subsequently, most of the Western world for more than 1,600 years. The Roman calendar began the year on 1 January, the start of the year after the Julian reform. However, even after local calendars were aligned with the Julian calendar, they started the new year on different dates. The Alexandrian calendar in Egypt started on 29 August (30 August after an Alexandrian leap year). Several local and provincial calendars were aligned to start on the birthday of Emperor Augustus, 23 September. The indiction caused the Byzantine year, which used the Julian calendar, to begin on 1 September; this date is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church for the beginning of the liturgical year.
At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on December 25th in honor of the birth of Jesus; March 1st in the old Roman style; March 25th in honor of Lady Day (the Feast of the Annunciation, the date of the conception of Jesus); and on the movable feast of Easter.
Christian observance
As a date in the Christian calendar, New Year's Day liturgically marked the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, which is still observed as such in the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church (Julian calendar, see below) and in Traditional Catholicism by those who retain the usage of the General Roman Calendar of 1960. The mainstream Roman Catholic Church celebrates on this day the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
Gift giving
Among the 7th-century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was customary to exchange gifts at the winter solstice. Saint Eligius deplored this custom. However, on the date that European Christians celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision, they exchanged Christmas presents because the feast fell within the 12 days of the Christmas season in the Western Christian liturgical calendar; The custom of exchanging Christmas gifts in a Christian context is traced back to the Biblical Magi who gave gifts to the Christ Child. In Tudor, England, January 1st (as the Feast of the Circumcision, not New Year's Day), along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, was celebrated as one of three main festivities among the twelve
At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on December 25th in honor of the birth of Jesus; March 1st in the old Roman style; March 25th in honor of Lady Day (the Feast of the Annunciation, the date of the conception of Jesus); and on the movable feast of Easter.
Christian observance
As a date in the Christian calendar, New Year's Day liturgically marked the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, which is still observed as such in the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church (Julian calendar, see below) and in Traditional Catholicism by those who retain the usage of the General Roman Calendar of 1960. The mainstream Roman Catholic Church celebrates on this day the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
Gift giving
Among the 7th-century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was customary to exchange gifts at the winter solstice. Saint Eligius deplored this custom. However, on the date that European Christians celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision, they exchanged Christmas presents because the feast fell within the 12 days of the Christmas season in the Western Christian liturgical calendar; The custom of exchanging Christmas gifts in a Christian context is traced back to the Biblical Magi who gave gifts to the Christ Child. In Tudor, England, January 1st (as the Feast of the Circumcision, not New Year's Day), along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, was celebrated as one of three main festivities among the twelve
Time zones
Because of the division of the globe into time zones, the new year moves progressively around the globe as the start of the day ushers in the New Year. The first time zone to usher in the New Year, just west of the International Date Line, is located in the Line Islands, a part of the nation of Kiribati, and has a time zone 14 hours ahead of UTC. All other time zones are 1 to 25 hours behind, most on the previous day, December 31; on American Samoa and Midway, it is still 11 PM on December 30. These are among the last inhabited places to observe New Year. However, uninhabited outlying US territories Howland Island and Baker Island are designated as lying within the time zone 12 hours behind UTC, the last places on earth to see the arrival of January 1. These small coral islands are found about midway between Hawaii and Australia, about 1,000 miles west of the Line Islands. This is because the International Date Line is a composite of local time zone arrangements, which winds through the Pacific Ocean, allowing each locale to remain most closely connected in time with the nearest or largest or most convenient political and economic locales each associates. By the time Howland Island sees the new year, it is 2 AM on January 2 in the Line Islands of Kiribati.
