New Year’s Eve and the adjustments this celebration has made through the years could be the book’s subject. The history of the New Year and how we choose a date for this celebration is full of contradictory facts and oral tales, like many other traditions with roots in Antiquity.
People don’t know a lot of things regarding New Year’s Eve. Even today, January 1 is not universally recognized as the start of a calendar year in many world regions.
Regarding New Year’s Eve
Some people view New Year’s Eve differently than others. The custom of January 1 being the start of the new year was first observed in numerous areas, including Europe and North America, around 45 BC. At the time, Julius Caesar presided over the Roman Empire.
Look at the Roman calendars for a moment
The majority of calendars in use today are calculated based on how long it takes the Earth to complete one rotation of the Sun. As a result, we can estimate the length of the year and New Year’s Eve precise time.
However, the Romans began using a calendar in the seventh century BC, which was based on lunar cycle calculations.
The Moon completes its orbit of the Earth in just 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes; therefore, this calculation method leads to a lot of uncertainty.
As a result, the solstices and equinoxes had different dates every year. Many facets of daily life, including planting and harvesting, were impacted by this uncertainty.
Additionally, there was a considerable impact on the consuls’ one-year term of office.
Caesar sets aside a month in the summer for himself.
According to an astronomer Julius Caesar consulted in 45 BC, a solar calendar would resolve the majority of the uncertainties society experienced each year. Caesar quickly codified the astronomer’s scheme and created a calendar with 12 months.
He gave the month of July his name to put his imprint on the new calendar. The name of his successor, Caesar Augustus, was given the following month.
Primarily because this was the day Romanian politicians took office, January 1 came to be the start of a new year. This serves as the foundation for the calendar we use today, which we always refer to on New Year’s Eve.
The Julian calendar wasn’t the one we use today, despite being an improvement over the previous one. The solar year was calculated with a tiny inaccuracy, resulting in an extra ten minutes yearly.
These minutes continued to add up. Ten extra days had already been added by the year 1450, and nobody knew what to do with them.
Gregory the Pope arrives
To find a solution, the issue returned to Rome. Pope Gregory XIII sought advice from an astronomer who used mathematics to determine the precise length of a solar year.
The Gregorian calendar was thus established in 1582, correcting the mistake by 10 minutes and adding a new day, February 29, to the calendar once every four years.
The new year officially begins on January 1 by the Catholic Church. However, this did not sit well with the Protestants.
They argued vociferously that because Gregory had altered time, he was the Antichrist of which the New Testament speaks. Surprisingly, it took a while for many “civilized” nations to adopt the new date of January 1.
Russia delayed the shift until after the 1917 Revolution, while most British colonies only did it in 1752. One of the last nations in Europe to use the Gregorian calendar was Romania.
In our nation, the changeover to the new calendar occurred in 1919, with April 1 becoming April 14.
Dates for the New Year are altered.
The Saint Emmeram Abbey’s Carolingian calendar. Each day of the week was broken down into 96 puncta (a quarter of an hour), 240 minutes tenths of an hour), and 960 momenta (one-thousandth of an hour) (fortieth of an hour). Figure: Pinterest
The history of the New Year has been influenced by numerous “celestial influences” and calendars worldwide. Most people are aware that the dates of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and Chinese New Year change each year.
Ethiopia’s calendar year begins on September 11. People celebrate the new year according to dates from the Hindu calendar in several regions of India.
The Julian calendar is used by those in the Gwaun Valley region of Wales, who mark the start of the year on January 13. Because of the political election thousands of years ago, January 1 is the beginning of the new year in the major.
But research has discovered that variables like the Earth’s orbital period and distance from the Sun are unstable.
Another adjustment to the calendar might be required to change the start of the year. Only time will tell, though.
