A BRIEF
NEW YEAR
HISTORY
The new year has not always begun on January 1, and it doesn't
begin on that date everywhere today. It begins on
that date only
for cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar.
January 1 became
the beginning of the new year in 46 B.C., when
Julius Caesar
developed a calendar that would more accurately
reflect the seasons
than previous calendars had.
The Romans named the first month of the year
after Janus, the god
of beginnings and the guardian of doors and
entrances. He was always
depicted with two faces, one on the front of his
head and one on the
back. Thus he could look backward and forward at
the same time. At
midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined
Janus looking back at
the old year and forward to the new. The Romans
began a tradition of
exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one
another branches
from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts
or coins imprinted
with the god Janus became more common New Year's
gifts.
In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New
Year's Day to December
25, the birth of Jesus. Then they changed it to
March 25, a holiday
called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth
century, Pope Gregory XIII
revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration
of the new year was
returned to January 1.
The Julian and Gregorian calendars are solar
calendars. Some cultures
have lunar calendars, however. A year in a lunar
calendar is less than
365 days because the months are based on the
phases of the moon. The
Chinese use a lunar calendar. Their new year
begins at the time of the
first full moon (over the FarEast) after the sun
enters Aquarius,
sometime between January 19 and Februsary 21. The
Chinese celebrate
the holiday by exchanging gifts, having parades,
and exploding
firecrackers. One of twelve animals, such as a
tiger, a rooster, or a
dog, is associated with each new year.
The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is
celebrated on the first two
days of the Jewish calendar's first month,
Tishri, which falls in
September or October. The Jewish New Year is
heralded by the rabbi
blowing a shofar, or ram's horn, in the
synagogue. The Islamic year
starts anew every 354 days. Because there are no
adjustments, like
Leap Year, to make each calendar year correspond
to the earth's cycle
around the sun, the first month of the Islamic
calendar, Muharram, is
not in the same season every year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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