www.infoplease.com/spot/newyearhistory.html


A History of the New Year

A move from March to January
by Borgna Brunner


It's time again to say "Happy New Year", once again! New Year is the most ancient of all the holidays. What we know as "New Year" today has evolved from practices of time immemorial. Go ahead and learn
about the origin and history of the foremost occasion of any year. A great occasion gives maximum fun only when celebrated with all around. So, gear
up for the occasion and fete with all. Loads of wishes to all Nairalanders

The Evolution

The celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon. The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in
Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March.
The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice.

Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings in the New
Year

The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten 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 December, our ninth through twelfth months, were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is "ten."

January Joins the Calendar:

The first time the new year was celebrated on January 1st was in Rome in 153 B.C. (In fact, the month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C., when the second king of Rome, Numa Pontilius, added the months of January and February.) The new year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly elected Roman consuls—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began their one-year tenure. But this new year date was not always strictly and widely observed, and the new year was still sometimes celebrated on March 1.

Julian Calendar: January 1st Officially Instituted as
the New Year

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based
calendar that was a vast improvement on the ancient
Roman calendar, which was a lunar system that had
become wildly inaccurate over the years. The Julian
calendar decreed that the new year would occur with
January 1, and within the Roman world, January 1
became the consistently observed start of the new year.


In medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the new year were considered pagan and unchristian like, and in 567 the Council of Tours
abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. At
various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.

Gregorian Calendar: January 1st Restored

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as new year's day. Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar almost immediately, it was only gradually adopted among Protestant countries.

The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed
calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire —and their American colonies— still celebrated the new year in March.