Is March the true New Year?

In the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Day is the first day of the calendar year: 1 January. Most solar calendars (like the Gregorian and Julian) begin the year regularly at or near the northern winter solstice, while cultures that observe a lunisolar or lunar calendar celebrate their Lunar New Year at less fixed 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 middle of the 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.^[2][3][4]

In the present day, with most countries now using the Gregorian calendar as their civil calendar, 1 January according to that 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 2000 BCE 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. (Septem is Latin for “seven”; octo, “eight”; novem, “nine”; and decem, “ten”) 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 (Latin: Kalendae Ianuariae), 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 153 BCE 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.^[8] 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 78 BCE, 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 BCE, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on 1 January 45 BCE, 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 (30 August after an Alexandrian leap year). 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 (the Feast of the Annunciation, the date of the conception of Jesus); and on the movable feast of Easte

Christian observance

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 Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church,^[11][12] the Eastern Orthodox Church (Julian calendar, see below) 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.

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 (died 659 or 660), who warned the Flemish and Dutch: “(Do not) make visuals, [little figures of the Old Woman], little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf, compare Puck] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [another Yule custom].”^[14] However, on the date that European Christians celebrated the Feast of the Circumcision, they exchanged Christmas presents because the feast fell within the 12 days of the Christmas season in the Western Christian liturgical calendar;^[15] The custom of exchanging Christmas gifts in a Christian context is traced back to the Biblical Magi who gave gifts to the Christ Child.^[16][17] In Tudor England, 1 January (as the Feast of the Circumcision, not New Year’s Day), along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, was celebrated as one of three main festivities among the twelve days of Christmastide.^[18]

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. France changed to 1 January from 1564, most of Germany did so from 1544, the Netherlands from 1556 or 1573 according to sect, Italy (pre-unification) did so on a variety of dates, Spain and Portugal from 1556, Sweden, Norway and Denmark from 1599, Scotland from 1600, and Russia from 1725.^[2] 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 1752 (except Scotland),^[a 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 (New Style) Act 1750, Britain and the Empire formally adopted 1 January as New Year’s Day and, with the same Act, also discarded the Julian calendar (though the actions are otherwise unrelated). 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 (and more accurate) Gregorian calendar. There was some religious dissent regarding feast days being moved, especially Christmas Day (see Old Christmas), 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 (‘Old Christmas’ rather than the December solstice) 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[edit]

At various stages during the first half of the twentieth century, all countries in Eastern Christendom adopted the Gregorian calendar as their civil calendar but continued, and have continued into modern times, to use the Julian Calendar for ecclesiastical purposes. As 1 January (Julian) equates to 14 January (Gregorian), a religious celebration of the New Year on this date may seem strange to Western eyes.