New Year's Day
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the northern winter solstice. In contrast, cultures and religions that observe a lunisolar or lunar calendar celebrate their Lunar New Year at varying points relative to the solar year.
In pre-Christian Rome, under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, god of gateways and beginnings, for whom January is also named. From Roman times until the mid-18th century, the new year was celebrated at various stages and in various parts of Christian Europe on 25 December, on 1 March, on 25 March and on the movable feast of Easter.
In the present day, with most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their civil calendar, 1 January according to Gregorian calendar is among the most celebrated of 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 the year 2000BC 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 1 March as the first day of the year. The calendar had just 10 months, beginning with March. That the new year once began with the month of 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 the establishment of 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 kalend, the start of the month of January, came to be celebrated as the new year at some point after it became the day for the inaugurating new consuls in 153BC as a result of the rebellion in Hispania which began the second Celtiberian War. Romans had long dated their years by these consulships, rather than sequentially, and making the kalends of January start the new year aligned this dating. Still, private and religious celebrations around the March new year continued for some time and there is no consensus on the question of the timing for 1 January's 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 78BC, 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.
New Year's Day in the older Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on, 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, and this remained the start of the year after the Julian reform. However, even after local calendars were aligned to the Julian calendar, they started the new year on different dates. The Alexandrian calendar in Egypt started on 29 August. Several local provincial calendars were aligned to start on the birthday of the 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 mediaeval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on 25 December in honour of the birth of Jesus; 1 March in the old Roman style; 25 March in honour of Lady Day ; and on the movable feast of Easter.
Christian observance
Christians of various denominations often attend a watchnight service on the night of New Year's Eve and this liturgy concludes in the morning of New Year's Day. Watchnight services provide the opportunity for Christians to review the year that has passed and make confession, and then prepare for the year ahead by praying and resolving. The services often include singing, praying, exhorting, preaching, and Holy Communion.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 Lutheran Church, Anglican Church, the Ambrosian section of the Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox Church 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. In Western Christianity, the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus Christ marks the eighth day of Christmastide.
In an article in Polityka, a Polish weekly periodical, Aleksander Krawczuk, a professor of history and former Minister of Culture of Poland, wrote that ancient Christians in ancient Rome considered the custom of celebrating the new year to be "scandalous and thoroughly pagan, alien in form and spirit to the worshipers of enlightened religion".
Gift giving
Among the 7th-century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts at the winter solstice. This custom was deplored by Saint Eligius, who warned the Flemish and Dutch: " make visuals, , little deer or iotticos or set tables at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks ."File:Magi.jpg|thumb|The Three Magi, Byzantine mosaic,, Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy. As here, Byzantine art usually depicts the Magi in Persian clothing, which includes breeches, capes, and Phrygian caps.
On the date that Christians celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, 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, 1 January, along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, was celebrated as one of three main festivities among the twelve days of Christmastide, and gift-giving was customary at the royal court.
Acceptance of 1 January as New Year's Day
Most nations of Europe and their colonies officially adopted 1 January as New Year's Day somewhat before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. Most of Germany changed to 1 January from 1544, the Netherlands did so from 1556 or 1573 according to sect, Spain and Portugal from 1556, France from 1564, Italy on a variety of dates, Sweden, Norway and Denmark from 1599, Scotland from 1600, and Russia from 1700 or 1725. England, Wales, Ireland, and Britain's American colonies adopted 1 January as New Year's Day from 1752.Great Britain and the British Empire
Until Tuesday, 31 December 1751, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the British Empire at the time had retained 25 March as the official start of the year, although informal use of 1 January had become common. With the Calendar Act 1750, Britain and the Empire formally adopted 1 January as New Year's Day in 1752 and, with the same Act, also discarded the Julian calendar at the end of Wednesday, 2 September of that same year. The Act came into effect "following the last said day of December 1751".By 1750, adjustments needed to be made for an eleven-day difference between the older Julian calendar and the newer Gregorian calendar. There was some religious dissent regarding feast days being moved, especially Christmas Day, and isolated communities continued the old reckoning to a greater or lesser extent. The years 1800 and 1900 were leap years in the Julian calendar but not in the Gregorian, so the difference increased to twelve days, then thirteen. The year 2000 was a leap year in both calendars.
- In the Gwaun Valley in Wales, the new year is celebrated on 13 January, still based on the 19th century difference in the calendars.
- Foula, in the Shetland islands celebrates Yule on 6 January and Newerday on 13 January. Again, both dates reflect the 19th century reckoning and were not moved again in 1900.
Eastern Orthodoxy
New Year's Day in other calendars
In cultures and religions that traditionally or currently use calendars other than the Gregorian, New Year's Day is often also an important celebration. Some countries concurrently use Gregorian and another calendar. New Year's Day in the alternative calendar attracts alternative celebrations of that new year:African
- Nayrouz and Enkutatash are the New Year's Days of the Coptic calendar and the Ethiopian calendar, respectively. Both occur on 29 August or about 11 September. They preserve the legacy of the ancient Egyptian new year Wept Renpet, which originally marked the onset of the Nile flood but which wandered through the seasons until the introduction of leap years to the Egyptian calendar by Augustus in 30–20BC. In Ethiopia, the new year is held to mark the end of the summer rainy season.
- The Odunde Festival, also called the African New Year, is celebrated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States on the second Sunday of June. While the name was based on the Yoruba African culture, its celebration marks the largest African celebration in the world, which more or less was started by a local tradition.
- The Sotho people of Lesotho and South Africa celebrate Selemo sa Basotho on 1 August during the end of the Southern Hemisphere's winter. This is based on the Sotho calendar, and includes observances such as "Mokete wa lewa", a celebration that follows the harvest.