Always so eager to celebrate the New Year, making extra efforts to stay up on the night of December 31 till the clock strikes 12 just so you could wish your loved ones a happy New Year and bid goodbye to the previous year. Haven’t you ever wondered why is it that we always celebrate New Year on January 1, is there any special significance attached to this particular date, why not some other date? Well of course in many cultures, the celebration of New Year takes place on other dates but I think it would be safe to say that on a global scale, people have accepted January 1 as the date for the celebration of New Year. So let us try to establish the reason why the New Year is celebrated on January 1.
Contents
Origins
During the era of the Romans, it was the month of March that marked the beginning of the calendar because they tried to follow the lunar cycle but frequently needed correction because they fell out of seasons. Therefore, for the very first time in history, New Year’s day was celebrated on January 1 when the Julian calendar took effect in 45 B.C. under the dictatorship of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. 46 B.C. was the first year that observed New Year on January 1. It was Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer who helped Caesar to design this new calendar, he was the one who advised Caesar to follow the solar cycles as the Egyptians did instead of the lunar cycles.
Religious significance
January was the month that observed the feast of the Roman God Janus. He was the God of doorways and new beginnings and had two faces, one looking backward and one looking forward. Therefore, Caesar saw it fit for January, i.e., Janus’ namesake month to be the first month of the year, serving as a gateway to the New Year and he fixed the date January 1 to be the first day of the year.
Drifting out of practice
In the middle ages when Rome fell and Europe saw the spread of Christianity, the celebration of New Year on January 1 was labeled as pagan (the Romans used to observe the first day of the new year by indulging themselves in drunken orgies.). So many people started observing New Year on different days like Easter Sunday or Christmas Eve in an attempt to Christianise it. Even people who strictly followed the Julian calendar did not always celebrate New Year on January 1. The reason behind this was a miscalculation by Caesar and Sosigenes as they mistook the value of the solar year to be 365.25 days instead of 365.242199 days. This resulted in the addition of 11-minutes-a-year error which added 7 days to the year 1000 and 10 days to the year 1582.
Corrections made and the introduction of the leap year
Tired of having to reset the holiday every year, Pope Gregory XIII took the aid of Jesuit astronomer, Christopher Clavius, and revised the calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented and the concept of the leap year was introduced. It used a single leap day every four years to keep the calendar aligned with the solar cycles and it also re-introduced January 1 as the first day of the year. The Catholic countries were quick to adopt the Gregorian calendar but the Protestants were a little hesitant, although, they did adopt it eventually.
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This is the historic arc that signifies the establishment of January 1 as the date that observes New Year. People from all around the globe gather on this date every year to give a warm welcome to the New Year and bid goodbye to the year that passed and shall never come back again.
