Why A new year? Didn’t the last just end?
It’s not only a new year, but a new decade.
The new year has gone a long way since its original creation. It originally begun wi th the Mayan calendar where the year began the beginning of march, however, it was the 11th month, January, where the consuls of ancient Rome assumed the government. Through out the years the calendar was changed by several governmental powers to include Julius Caesar in 47 BC (The Julian calendar), Marc Antony in 44 BC, and again by emperor Augustus Caesar in 8 BC, and the last was by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Which still remains today as the New Year we all just woke up from.
As a result of the expansion of western culture through out the world, New Years has become a common and well known tradition all over the world. Though some cultures celebrate the specific day at slightly different times, it all originates from the same point.
New Years is, after all, the oldest celebrated holiday. It began roughly 4,000 years ago. Somewhere around 2000 BC, the Babylonians celebrated their New Years with the first New Moon, which actually was the first visible Crescent moon after the Vernal Equinox, or the first day of Spring. Around that time people thought the Spring was a justifiable reason to celebrate the New Year. It was considered the season of rebirth and marked the time to plant new crops. January 1st, however, has never had any astronomical nor agricultural significance, and is completely arbitrary.
The calendar changes didn’t actually happen with out complication. May religious regimes had several disputes against it. Around the first centuries the Romans continued celebrating the New Year where as the Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But Christianity began to grab hold of the religious observances, now leading us into he more traditional holidays celebrated now.
For years, however, the New Year was observed in late March by the Romans. Yet their calendar was tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun. In 153 BC, the roman Senate wished to set the Calendar right, and declared January 1st as the beginning of the year. Tampering continued until Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar, which required one year to run for 445 days so that the calendar could synchronize with the sun.
However people spend, enjoy, or create their New Years, it is still a celebration held world wide. Its one time of year that everyone can come together and ring in the beginning of something new.
Just a tad bit of information to start off the new year.
Happy New Year Everyone.
