New Year is probably the most celebrated public holiday around the globe. On the first day of January every year, practically the whole world welcomes the beginning of a new year. Every New Year’s Eve, many families traditionally gather and have dinner together.
When the clock strikes 12:00 midnight, fireworks are lighted. The custom began after the invention of gunpowder in China in the 10th century. The Chinese were the very first to ring in the new year with fireworks – to drive away evil spirits and attract good luck. The rest of the world then followed what seemed to be a spectacular and exciting festive activity. People happily hug each other and exchange gifts and good wishes for the New Year, as well as sing traditional songs, such as Auld Lang Syne ("old long since” or “days gone by").
New Year in March.
Festivals and celebrations marking the beginning of a new year have been around for thousands of years. However, most new year festivities in many countries were held not in January, which is a winter month, but in the spring, linked to renewed agricultural activity. It was also the time when armies began actively preparing for war.
The first new year observances are believed to have been made in Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C. and were celebrated around the time of the spring equinox (when day and night are of equal lengths) in late March (the month later named for Mars, the Roman god of war).
Babylon. The earliest new year observances and celebrations were deeply intertwined with religion and mythology. For the Babylonians in Mesopotamia, the first new moon after the spring equinox heralded the rebirth of nature and the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a religious festival of several days called Akitu (Sumerian term for “barley cut in spring”).
From the first day of Akitu, statues of gods were paraded through the city streets, and rituals were enacted to symbolize victory over the forces of chaos. By these the Babylonians believed that the world was symbolically cleansed and recreated by the gods in preparation for the new year and the return of spring.
Persia. The Persians likewise began their new year in the spring, at equinox, which usually falls on or around March 21. They called it Nowruz, which literally means “New Day” in Farsi, marking the first day of spring and the beginning of a new year. Ancient observances of Nowruz focused on the rebirth that accompanied the return of spring.
The celebrations are thought to date back to the reign of Cyrus the Great in the 6th century B.C. Unlike many bygone ancient Persian festivals, Nowruz persisted as an important holiday even after Persia’s conquest by Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. and the rise of Islamic rule in the 7th century A.D. Many of the festive traditions have roots in Zoroastrianism, an ancient monotheistic faith still practiced by some 25,000 people in Iran.
Today, a 13-day Nowruz festival is widely celebrated across the Middle East and Central Asia by around 300 million people.
Roman calendar.
The first Roman calendar, introduced in 753 B.C. by Romulus, the first king of Rome, designated March 1 as the first day of the year.
Only ten months. The calendar had only 10 months. That the Roman year used to begin in the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months in the modern-day Gregorian calendar. September to December, today the 9th to 12th months, were originally positioned as the 7th to 10th months (septem is Latin for “seven”; octo, “eight”; novem, “nine”; and decem, “ten”.) The period of two months which transpired during the cold and dreary winter season had no name.
January and February added. The two winter months practically did not exist until 713 B.C., when the second king of Rome, Numa Ponpilius, named them January and February as the 11th and 12th months, respectively, of the Roman year.
January was named for Janus, the Roman god of gateways and beginnings. He had two faces – one symbolically looking back on the past and the other gazing ahead to the future. Janus illustrated the idea of transition from one year to the next.
The name February came from februum (purification) and februa (the rites or instruments used for purification). These formed part of preparations for the coming of spring – cleaning houses, leaves worn by the priests, and strips of goatskin used in the festival of Lupercalia held in mid-February.
Intercalary month. A thirteenth month, called Intercalarius (or intercalary month), was later added at the end of the year so that the lunar calendar could catch up with the solar year.
New Year moved to
January.
In 450 B.C., January and February were formally made the first and second months of the Roman year.
The first time the New Year was celebrated on January 1 was in Rome in 153 B.C. The new year was moved from March in spring to January in winter because it began the Roman civil year, when the two newly elected consuls – then the highest officials in the Roman republic – started their joint one-year tenure.
Some 100 years later, in 45 B.C., Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar calendar that was an improvement on the ancient Roman lunar calendar, which had become inaccurate over the years. His Julian calendar also had the beginning of the year on January 1.
However, the number of days of some months kept changing. In 8 B.C., Augustus Caesar renamed the 8th month Sextilis (previously the 6th month) after himself (August, the month he became a consul) and gave it 31 days to put it on the same level as the month named for Julius Caesar (July).
The table below shows how the ancient Roman calendar changed and developed over the centuries (753-8 B.C.).
Un-Christian holiday abolished. Hundreds of years afterwards, in medieval Europe, the celebrations accompanying the New Year were considered pagan and un-Christian. In 567 A.D., the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year.
Thereafter, in different places throughout Europe, the New Year was variously celebrated on December 25 (erroneously presumed to be the birth day of Christ); March 1 (following the old Roman tradition); March 25 (Feast of the Annunciation); and Easter Sunday (resurrection day of Christ).
Modern Gregorian Calendar. In the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar widely used today, replacing the old Julian calendar and changing the formula for calculating leap years. The celebration of New Year was removed from March 1 or 25 and the other dates, and again fixed on January 1.
Pagan practices
forbidden.
God had commanded: “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods” (Deut 12:29-31).
God’s people should not imitate the ways pagans worship their gods. These are detestable and disgusting to the LORD.
"Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless…” (Jer 10:2-3a, NIV). Following any of the various superstitious practices of other people who do things against the will of God is just a waste of time.
Only for Israel?
Some may argue that God’s commandments are only for Israel. Yes and no. The Scriptures explain: “One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you” (Num 15:15-16).
To paraphrase, if a foreigner lives with or joins the Israelites in the worship of the one true God (“YHWH”), he or she is duty-bound to observe the same commandments God has given to His chosen people – the Hebrew nation or Israel.
“Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isa 56:6-7).
The foreigners who will faithfully keep God’s laws will be numbered among His people and taken to the kingdom of heaven. Needless to say, excluded are those who imitate pagans in worshipping their gods – celebrating what we can call unholy holidays.
