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New Year's Day

I can think of no other year, at least in my lifetime, that the new year has held so much promise and people have welcomed January 1st with so much eagerness and hope! It's a time to bid goodbye to 2020 and the pandemic, and welcome the new year with new beginnings- a historic vaccine, the triumph of science and the return to normal life with friends, travel and in-person school!

With January 1st holding so much importance, have you ever wondered why it is that day that begins the new year? January 1st is quite a random day really. It is the middle of winter with no special religious or seasonal festival marking the date or even the month, so why do we start the year on that day? Of course, it goes back to the Classical age! 

The first new year celebration goes back several millennia to around 2000 BC when the Mesopotamians started celebrating the new year. However, they celebrated it on the vernal equinox in mid-March, when the length of day equals the length of night. The Egyptians also picked an equinox as their new new year, but for them it was the fall equinox. The Greeks chose the winter solstice (shortest day!) to celebrate the new year.

The Romans were different from all of them. Their calendar had 10 months, starting in March, so March 1 was new year's day. Of course, the Romans did everything in style, so the new years celebration wasn't limited to one day but continued until the Ides of March on the 15th. 

Interesting fact: the names of the months are still based on their calendar so September (septem= seven in latin) was the seventh month, "Octo"ber  was eighth, "novem"ber was ninth and "Decem"ber  was the tenth month. 

Then came Julius Caesar and in 45 BC, he started a new solar-based calendar that was more accurate than the old lunar calendar. The new Julian calendar added two new months before March. The first month was named January in honor of the two-faced god Janus who is the god of beginnings and ends. Thus came January 1 to be the first day of the new year! (Ironically, the Ides of March  was the day Caesar was murdered years later!)

Two-faced Janus

Julian calendar

Although Caesar changed the new year's date to what we know now, it wasn't smooth sailing for Jan 1 celebrations. In the medieval ages, Europeans decided the new year celebrations were pagan and unchristian and abolished it. The new year was celebrated on Christmas day on the birth of Jesus. In 1582, a new Gregorian calendar was established and January 1 was reinstated as New year's day. Some protestant countries like the U.K. still didn't agree and continued celebrating new year in March. It was only in mid-1700's that the U.K. and their American colonies adopted the new Gregorian calendar (after much riots no less), and Jan 1 officially became New Year's Day!

So on January 1, 2021, let's all join together in celebrating the end of a tumultuous year that we hope we never have to see the likes of again. Felix Annus Novus!  (Happy New Year)



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