ANCIENT NEW YEARS
"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and
heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a
new year gets under way. But the day celebrated as
New Year's Day in modern America was not always
January 1.
ANCIENT NEW YEARS
The celebration of the new year is the oldest of
all holidays. It was first observed in ancient
Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around
2000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of
a new year on what is now March 23, although they
themselves had no written calendar.
Late March actually is a logical choice for the
beginning of a new year. It is the time of year
that spring begins and new crops are planted.
January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical
nor agricultural significance. It is purely
arbitrary.
The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for
eleven days. Each day had its own particular
mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that
modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in
comparison.
The Romans continued to observe the new year on
March 25, but their calendar was continually
tampered with by various emperors so that the
calendar soon became out of synchronization with
the sun.
In order to set the calendar right, the Roman
senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the
beginning of the new year. But tampering
continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC,
established what has come to be known as the
Julian Calendar. It again established January 1
as the new year. But in order to synchronize the
calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the
previous year drag on for 445 days.
THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans
continued celebrating the new year, the early
Catholic Church condemned the festivities as
paganism. But as Christianity became more
widespread, the early church began having its
own religious observances concurrently with
many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's
Day was no different. New Years is still
observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision
by some denominations.
During the Middle Ages, the Church remained
opposed to celebrating New Years. January 1
has been celebrated as a holiday by Western
nations for only about the past 400 years.
