A Little History on Our
New Year.
New Year is the time at which a
new calendar year begins. In many cultures, the event is celebrated in a
variety of customs. Here in the gold old US of A, many of us go out to
celebrate or stay at home and watch the apple fall from New York Times Square. The
New Year of the Gregorian calendar, today in worldwide use, falls on 1 January
(New Year's Day), as was the case with both the old Roman calendar and the
Julian calendar that succeeded it. The order of months was January to December
in the Old Roman calendar during the reign of King Numa Pompilius in about 700
BC, according to Plutarch and Macrobius, and has been in continuous use since
that time. In many countries, such as the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the UK,
and the United States, the first of January is a national holiday. During the
Middle Ages in western Europe, while the Julian calendar was still in use, New
Year's Day was variously moved, depending upon locale, to one of several other
days, among them: 1 March, 25 March, Easter, 1 September, and 25 December.
These New Year's Day changes were generally reversed back to January 1 before
or during the various local adoptions of the Gregorian calendar, beginning in
1582. The change from March 25 – Lady Day, one of the four quarter days – to
January 1 took place in Scotland in 1600, before the ascension of James VI of
Scotland to the throne of England in 1603 or the formation of the United
Kingdom in 1707. In England and Wales (and all British dominions, including the
American colonies), 1751 began on March 25 and lasted 282 days, and 1752 began
on January 1st.
A great many other calendars have
been in use historically throughout the world, some of which count years
numerically, and others that do not. The expansion of Western culture during
recent centuries has seen such widespread official adoption of the Gregorian
calendar that its recognition and that of January 1 as the New Year has become
virtually global.
Regional or local use of other
calendars persists, along with the cultural and religious practices that
accompany them. In many places such as Israel, China, and India, New Year's is
also celebrated at the times determined by these other calendars. In Latin
America, the observation of traditions belonging to various native cultures
continues according to their own calendars, despite the domination of
subsequent cultures. The most common dates of modern New Year's celebrations
are listed below, ordered and grouped by their appearance relative to the
Gregorian calendar.
Contrary to common belief, the
civil New Year of January 1 is not an Orthodox Christian religious holiday. The
Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar makes no provision for the observance of a
New Year. January 1 is itself a religious holiday, but that is because it is
the feast of the circumcision of Christ (8 days after his birth), and a
commemoration of saints. While the liturgical calendar begins September 1,
there is also no particular religious observance attached to the start of the
new cycle. Orthodox nations may, however, make civil celebrations for the New
Year. Those that adhere to the revised Julian calendar (which synchronizes
dates with the Gregorian calendar), including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece,
Romania, Syria, and Turkey, observe both the religious and civil holidays on
January 1. In other nations and locations where Orthodox churches still adhere
to the Julian calendar, including Georgia, Jerusalem, Russia, the Republic of
Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Ukraine, the civil new year is observed on
January 1 of the civil calendar, while those same religious feasts occur on
January 14 (which is actually the Julian, January 1 in accord with the
liturgical calendar.)
Adapting January 1st
as New Year’s Day took place in the following years.
It took quite a long time before
1 January again became the universal or standard start of the civil year. The
years of adoption of 1 January as the new year are as follows: Grand Duchy of
Lithuania 1362, Venice 1522, Sweden 1529, Holy Roman Empire & Germany 1544,
Spain, Portugal, Poland 1556, Prussia, Denmark and Norway 1559, France 1564, Southern
Netherlands 1576, Lorraine 1579, Dutch Republic 1583, Scotland 1600, Russia
1700, Tuscany 1721, Britain, Ireland and British Empire except Scotland 1752, Greece
1923, Turkey 1926, and Thailand 1941.
The Islamic New Year occurs on 1
Muharram. Since the Muslim calendar is based on 12 lunar months amounting to
about 354 days, the Muslim New Year occurs about eleven days earlier each year
in relation to the Gregorian calendar, with two Muslim New Year’s falling in
Gregorian year 2008.
The present-day Coptic Orthodox
liturgical calendar reflects the same fundamental ancient structures, even
though its early break from Eastern Orthodoxy in 452 shows evidence of a
separate development. The Coptic calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian
calendar, which Emperor Augustus reformed in 25 BC to keep it forever in synch
with the Julian calendar, but it is not identical to the Julian calendar. The
Coptic liturgical New Year, at the feast of Neyrouz, synchronized with the
Julian September 1 at a different point from the Gregorian calendar, has
therefore a different degree of separation today. Between 1900 and 2099,
Neyrouz occurs on 11 September (Gregorian), with the exception of the year
before Gregorian leap years, when it occurs on 12 September. (The Coptic year
1731 began in September 2013.) The Ethiopian Orthodox New Year, Enkutatash,
falls on the same date as Neyrouz. The Ethiopian calendar year 2006 began on 11
September 2013.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII while
reforming the Julian calendar established January 1st as the
beginning of a New Year of the Gregorian calendar.
And there you have it, a
condensed history lesson our New Year.
So what do you do to celebrate
the coming year? I know what I do. I sit back, watch a little tv while the
clock counts down, have a toast with my hubby then hit the sac. I’ve grown too
old to fight the crowds at the bars then try to drive home intoxicated. (grin).
However you decide to celebrate the coming year, be safe, don’t make promises
you can’t keep and most of all have fun!
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!
*Much of
this was taken directly from Wikipedia
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