History of New Year’s Day: Why on January 1?
New Year’s Day. Image: Wikimedia
HISTORY OF NEW YEAR’S DAY
We have the ancient Romans to thank for celebrating New Year’s Day on January 1. It wasn’t always that way. Previous civilizations celebrated it in March to observe the “new year” of growth and fertility.
Before calendars existed, the time between seed sowing and harvesting was considered a cycle or a year. However, the Romans moved the date of the New Year to January 1, as I’ll explain below. But first, a little about calendars.
The word Calendar comes from the first day of a month in the Roman (Latin) calendar: kalendae. In contrast, the middle of the Roman month is the ides.
Different Calendars
A variety of calendars were developed for all kinds of purposes:
- Religious: “holy days” or holidays. Some can be regional and historical: Christian, Jewish, Chinese, and Islamic.
- Astronomical: connecting the movement of celestial objects in the sky. There may be lunar (Jewish), solar (Julian), or even lunisolar (Gregorian) calendars.
- Commercial: tracking trade and billing.
- Arithmetic: for calculating differences between dates. Because there was no Year 0, the difference between 1 BC and AD 1 is 1 year, not 2. Which is a challenge for Astronomical Calendars
- Taxes: there are several deadlines throughout the year for personal, corporate, and partnership taxes, among others. Other than death, taxes are inevitable.
Calendars often track the movement of the sun, moon, or both. Like the ancient Egyptians, some traced the movements of planets such as Venus.
Setting the date for the universal observance of Easter caused international controversy until it was resolved at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. This occasioned several calendar reforms. Emperor Constantine wanted Easter to be observed on the same day across the Roman Empire and not tied to the Jewish calendar.
If you don’t account for Easter, there are only 14 different permutations of the de facto international standard, the Gregorian Calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII, who established it in 1582), that are now commonly in use. But because the date for Easter Sunday can vary so much – it’s the first Sunday after the first Paschal Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox, and let’s not forget Leap Year – there are 70 different calendars.
Date of New Year’s Day
So, back to the date for the New Year. Initially, it was celebrated late in March, when Spring began with the Vernal Equinox. The ancient Babylonians were the first recorded observers of New Year festivities, some 4,000 years ago. They marked it by having priests offer sacrifices at their temple, kind of like their church.
These celebrations lasted 11 days because of the numerous state-sponsored football bowl games held at the time. However, because priestly religious observances were also held at this time, the populace cried for the “separation of church and state championships.”
Roman New Year
The Romans also celebrated the New Year in March. Still, there were so many adjustments to their calendar by their rulers – this may be hard to believe – in part to extend their terms of office, that calendar dates no longer aligned with any astronomical movements. The Roman Senate was forced in 153 BC to start the new year on January 1.
This did not sufficiently discourage calendar tampering. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar extended the year to 445 days, the “Year of Confusion,” until his new calendar, ironically called the Julian Calendar, reformed matters.
This calendar was used for over 1600 years in Europe and its colonies, and is still used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Generally, a Julian date can be calculated as thirteen days earlier than (or behind) the Gregorian Calendar date. (See my explanation here.)
Christianity’s Influence on New Year’s Day
When Christianity became the Roman Empire’s official religion in the 4th century under Theodosius I, some Emperors continued holding riotous New Year’s celebrations, similar to our “toga parties,” but more authentic.
Circumcision of Christ, by Luca Signorelli
In part to counter this activity, including the revelries of New Year’s Eve, but primarily because Luke’s Gospel (2:23) relates that Jesus was circumcised 8 days after his birth — the 8th Day of Christmas — the Church established a holy day on January 1, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, also known as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.
This was especially true between 1568 and 1960, according to the General Roman Calendar. It is now called the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, or the Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord, as it occurs on the eighth Day of Christmastide.
This is when the name Jesus would have been conferred upon him at his circumcision. Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and some Eastern Orthodox sects have continued to observe it through the centuries.
St. Basil of Caesarea. Image: Wikipedia
But this is not the only feast day celebrated on January 1. It is also the Feast of St. Basil the Great. He was an early Roman Christian prelate, the Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, who died on January 1, 379 AD.
He was remembered for his support of the Nicene Creed and his care for the poor and underprivileged.
The jury is still out on whether these feast days have quieted New Year’s celebrations.
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
Podcast:
