About New Year's Day

DESCRIPTION:

Today is the first day of the year worldwide, and it is a national holiday in most countries. Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New Year's foods, making resolutions for the New Year, and watching fireworks displays.

The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon.

Emperor Julius Caesar (July 13, 100 BC - March 15, 44 BC) instituted January 1 as the first day of the year to honor the month's namesake, Janus, the Roman god of beginnings. Janus is depicted with two faces, allowing him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Caesar developed the Julian Calendar, which became the calendar of commerce until 1752, when the Gregorian Calendar, created by Pope Gregory XIII, was adopted by the British Empire as the international standard. Up until then, March 25 had been its New Year's Day.

The difference in the two calendars is 11 minutes and 14 seconds, which eventually puts summer in winter and winter in summer over decades. Pope Gregory added a leap day every four years to compensate for the additional time it takes the sun to go around the earth.

Why change? Predominantly, Easter didn't fall in the middle of winter and would always occur in the spring.

Fun fact: When Britain instituted the calendar in 1752, they had a problem. There were 11 too many days in the calendar. How did they solve this? In 1752 the month of September lost 11 days, going from September 2 to September 14 in twenty-four hours. Imagine the number of people who over-indulged in alcohol the night of the 2nd and suddenly woke up 11 days later the next morning! Oh my!