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Take a look back at the the most popular questions and topics of 2010.

On New Year's, people look forward and back, as did the two-headed Roman god Janus who lent his name to the first month of the year. It's a time for resolutions, a custom that goes back several millennia to the Babylonians, whose most popular one reportedly was to return borrowed farm implements. Nowadays, we're more likely to resolve to become better, skinnier, more fit, more patient, and smoke-free.

Parties, champagne and fireworks are common around the globe, but there are some more idiosyncratic customs as well. In Spain, 12 grapes are eaten during the last 12 seconds of the outgoing year (Peruvians eat 13). People who belong to polar bear clubs may indulge in a refreshing icy dip; the Coney Island Polar Bear Club of NYC has been doing this on New Year's Day since 1904. One Hogmanay custom popular in northeast Scotland is fireball swinging, which involves marching through the streets while twirling three-foot flaming balls on six-foot chains.

Other places tend to drop things during the final countdown to midnight. The most famous, in Times Square, is a 1,070-pound, 6-foot Waterford crystal ball, but other choices in various US cities include a pine cone, a pickle, a pretzel, and a live opossum in a cage.

"And to make an end is to make a beginning." — T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

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American Heritage Dictionary:

New Year

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n.
The first day or days of the calendar year.


Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore:

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In England this has lost nearly all of its traditional customs and beliefs. For most English people, New Year's Eve is either spent quietly at home, or at a party, which lasts till after midnight to ‘see the New Year in’. Such gatherings differ little from other parties, apart from the ubiquitous singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. For some, the proper way to celebrate is to gather at a public place appropriated for such use. In all cases the stroke of midnight is immediately followed by much cheering, shouting, hooting of horns, and again ‘Auld Lang Syne’. A piece in the Illustrated London News (2 Jan. 1897, 1, 3) described how masses of people had started to accumulate every year on the steps of St. Paul's in London after new bells were installed in 1878. Church authorities stopped the New Year bell-ringing because they were worried about public disorder, but the meeting-place had become traditional and the crowds continued to gather each year. In the 1930s, the church again took notice of the New Year crowds and arranged community singing, which was even broadcast to ‘listeners-in’ to the new wireless (reports in The Times, 18, 19 Nov. 1935, 1 Jan. 1936, 1 Jan. 1937). After the Second World War, the focus of London celebration shifted to Trafalgar Square, where it has remained. The only other regular features of the season are the ubiquitous salutations of ‘Happy New Year’ and the tendency to make personal ‘New Year resolutions’. Neverthless, there is a general awareness in England that New Year is really the Scottish celebration par excellence.

In earlier times, the season was taken more seriously. Many of the following superstitions and customs can be seen in the light of the principle that the beginning of any enterprise or period is vitally important, and largely determines its relative success or failure. The literature on New Year in the past is dominated by the custom of ‘first footing’ or ‘letting in the New Year’. Again this custom is nowadays associated mainly with Scotland, but in the 19th century it was known and practised over most of England as well, although clearly taken more seriously in the northern countries. In broad outline it was very similar everywhere—the first person to come into the house after midnight on New Year's Eve had to have certain personal characteristics and to conform to certain rules in order to bring luck to the house for the coming year. The details of the custom, however, vary considerably from place to place, and there seems to be no discernible pattern. In most places the first footer must be dark haired, or dark skinned, but some insisted on a fair haired or light complexion. Almost invariably, a male first footer was required, and some stipulated a married man while others required a bachelor, while some say flat-footed or cross-eyed people must be avoided. It was common for the first-footer to carry symbolic gifts—bread and coal being the most common commodities, but whiskey, and ‘something green’ (i.e. alive) were also popular. In some areas, the first-footer was called the ‘Lucky Bird’. On entering, the first-footer would sometimes remain silent until he had poked the fire, or had placed coal on it, and several references maintain that he should enter by the front and leave by the back door. A simpler way of ensuring luck was to open the front and back doors to let the old year out and the new one in (N&Q 4s: 1 (1868), 193). In almost all cases the first-footer was rewarded with food, drink, and/or money, and people who fitted the local ideal for first-footer often made a substantial sum by going from house to house (by arrangement) early on New Year's Day. The seriousness with which some people took the first-foot rules is evidenced in various sources, such as the following reported in N&Q (7s:10 (1890), 5): reporting on a trial in Mansfield (Nottinghamshire), and explaining why a young woman was walking the streets at one o'clock in the morning, it was stated that she had returned from the midnight service at her local church but her mother would not let her into the house until her father or brother came in first, which was some hours later. The same journal (4s:5 (1870), 89) reports a farmer who could not get into his own house on New Year morning until someone with darker hair came hours later.

New Year's Eve or Day was also one of the key times for divination. Particularly popular was ‘dipping’ into the Bible and reading aloud a passage to predict how the coming year would be (see under book (divination with)). Another widespread method involved inspecting the ashes of the domestic fire for shapes (Aubrey, 1686/1880: 95), while many put their faith in whom they met first on New Year's Day, preferring certain types of people for luck (as in the first footing), but a variation was the idea that the Christian name of the first person of the opposite sex you see on that day will be that of your future partner (Henderson, 1866: 55). Even before the day was declared a Bank Holiday in England (in 1974), there were strong traditions that no work should be done, and it was one of the days when washing was particularly unlucky, and when new clothes should be worn (see clothes), but it was essential to ensure you had money in your pocket or you would be poor all year.

On the principle of setting a precedent, there was a widespread belief that nothing should be taken out of the house before something had been brought in. Adherence to this tenet would ensure that the net flow of luck, prosperity, food, and so on, over the next year would be inward and positive rather than outward. ‘Never throw any ashes, dirty water, or anything, however worthless, out of your house on this day …’ (Denham Tracts, 1895: ii. 24; Henderson, 1866: 57). There was a particularly strong aversion to taking fire, in any form, out of the house, and woe betide anyone who let their fire go out on New Year's Eve or Day (Harland and Wilkinson, 1882: 214).

Another important element of New Year celebrations was visiting. This could take the form of neighbours visiting each other, when an essential ingredient was, of course, the food and drink provided. A form of visiting custom involved children going from door to door, singing traditional verses and hoping for money or food in return.

I wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
A pocket full of money
And a cellar full of beer
A good fat pig
That will last you all the year
I wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
(Herefordshire: Leather, 1912: 90)

At Driffield (Yorkshire), Hastings (Sussex), and Pudsey (Yorkshire), and probably elsewhere, there was a scrambling custom, where boys assembled in the street, outside shops, calling on the shopkeepers to throw items out to them (Nicholson, 1890: 21; Sussex Archaeological Collections 33 (1883), 238; N&Q 5s:8 (1877), 504).

Most of the customs already discussed cannot be shown to be very old, and the picture of New Year before the 19th century was very different indeed. Despite its ubiquity, neither the phrase nor the custom of first footing can be traced before the turn of the 19th century—even in Scotland—and most of the other beliefs detailed above are not found before the 1850s. As is well known, the name for the New Year in Scotland is Hogmanay, and this, in various spellings such as Hagmena, was also the regular terms in northern England and the earliest use of the word so far discovered is in Yorkshire. An entry in the household accounts of Sir Robert Waterton, of Methley, in 1444, records payments for a big ‘hogmanayse’ and a little ‘hogmanayse’. The entry is all in Latin apart from that word (see Folklore 95:2 (1984), 252-4). The OED, after admitting that the word is ‘of obscure history’, proffers an Old French word, aguillanneuf, as a probable source, meaning ‘the last day of the year, new year's gift, the festival at which new year's gifts were given and asked with the shout of aguillanneuf’, which almost exactly fits the descriptions of New Year between the 15th and 17th centuries, where the emphasis is on gifts and visiting. The oldest references to gift-giving at New Year refer to royalty and nobility exchanging expensive presents, as far back as the time of Henry III (see Brand, 1849: i. 15) and up to Elizabeth I. In later periods the custom certainly existed within families as well as between friends and those with social obligations up or down the social scale. More modest traditional gifts were oranges stuck with cloves, gilded nutmegs, capons (from tenant farmers to landlords), various other foodstuffs, and papers of pins. The earlier visiting custom is again mostly reported from Scotland, but again it is clear that it was also common in northern England. It consisted of bands of young men (later children) going from door to door on New Year's Eve, singing and expecting gifts. A version from Richmond, Yorkshire, commences:
To-night it is the New Year's night, to-morrow is the day
And we have come for our right and for our ray
As we used to do in King Henry's day
Sing, fellows, sing Hagmen heigh!
(Ingledew, Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire (1860))

The fact that Scotland and England have different views of the relative importance of Christmas and New Year is the result of the divergence of religion during the Puritan revolutions of the 17th century. As is well known, the gradual increase in influence and power of ‘Puritan’ Protestant sects across much of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries brought increasing pressure on saints' days and other festivals which were branded as Catholic inventions. Christmas was thus increasingly discouraged and finally banned altogether in England in 1645. At a popular level, there was thus a tendency for people to transfer their celebrations from the dangerous Christmas to the secular New Year. At the Restoration, Christmas was reinstated, only to be removed again in Scotland, by the Kirk, in 1688-90. The stage was thus set for the two countries to go their own way, and Scottish people made New Year their main midwinter festival.

Details of New Year celebrations up to medieval times are sketchy, although if the Church condemnations are to be believed the people certainly indulged in some sort of behaviour which offended ecclesiastical sensibilities. The upper echelons of society had New Year feasts, although, as noticed in the entry for Christmas, there was a strong tradition of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and it is thus not always easy to separate Christmas and New Year. Reading between the lines, the main thrust of the Church's disquiet was concerned with divination (see Hutton, 1996: 7-8) which, as already stated, would be a logical thing to be doing at the start of a New Year. Beyond this the picture is even more speculative, but ‘… there is sufficient to argue strongly for the existence of a major pre-Christian festival marking the opening of the new year, at the moment at which the sun had reached the winter solstice, and its strength was being renewed. There is testimony to this in the Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Welsh components of the British heritage’ (Hutton, 1996: 8), but what they did is still open to debate.

For other customs which took place at New Year, see ALLENDALE TAR BARRELS, BOOK (DIVINATION WITH), HOBBY HORSES, LIFTING, MUMMING, MUMMING PLAYS, RIDING THE STANG, SWORD DANCES, WASSAILING.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

  • Wright and Lones, 1938: ii. 1-49
  • Opie and Tatem, 1989: 283-7
  • Folk-Lore 3 (1892), 253-64
  • M. E. Ringwood, Folklore 71 (1960), 252-5.
  • Brand, 1849: i. 10-20
Quotes About:

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Quotes:

"The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears." - W. H. Auden

"Then sing, young hearts that are full of cheer, with never a thought of sorrow; the old goes out, but the glad young year comes merrily in tomorrow." - Emily Miller

"Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn't it, of a long line of proven criminals?" - Ogden Nash

"Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer." - Sir Walter Scott

Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:

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  See crossword solutions for the clue New Year.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

New Year

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For other uses, see New Year (disambiguation).

New Year is the time at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count is incremented. In many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner.[1] The New Year of the Gregorian calendar, today in worldwide use, falls on 1 January, as was the case with the Roman calendar. There are numerous calendars that remain in regional use that calculate the New Year differently.

The order of months in the Roman calendar was January to December since King Numa Pompilius in about 700 BC, according to Plutarch and Macrobius. According to Catholic tradition, 1 January is the day of the circumcision of Jesus (on the eighth day from his birth), when the name of Jesus was given to him (Luke 2:21).

It was only relatively recently that 1 January again became the first day of the year in Western culture. Until 1751 in England and Wales (and all British dominions) the new year started on 25 March – Lady Day, one of the four quarter days (the change to 1 January took place in 1600 in Scotland).[2] Since then, 1 January has been the first day of the year. During the Middle Ages several other days were variously taken as the beginning of the calendar year (1 March, 25 March, Easter, 1 September, 25 December).[citation needed][where?] In many countries, such as the Czech Republic, Italy and the UK, 1 January is a national holiday.

For information about the changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar and the effect on the dating of historical events etc., see Old Style and New Style dates.

With the expansion of Western culture to many other places in the world during recent centuries, the Gregorian calendar has been adopted by many other countries as the official calendar, and the 1 January date of New Year has become global, even in countries with their own New Year celebrations on other days (such as China and India). In the culture of Latin America there are a variety of traditions and superstitions surrounding these dates[clarification needed] as omens for the coming year. The most common modern dates of celebration are listed below, ordered and grouped by their appearance relative to the conventional Western calendar.

Contents

By month or season

January

Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books in this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.

March

  • Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon after the Northward equinox. Ancient celebrations lasted for eleven days.[3]
  • Nava (new) Varsha (year) is celebrated in India in various regions in March–April.
  • New Year's Day in the Sikh Nanakshahi calendar is on 14 March.
  • The Iranian New Year, called Nowruz, is the day containing the exact moment of the Northward equinox, which usually occurs on 20 or 21 March, commencing the start of the spring season. The Zoroastrian New Year coincides with the Iranian New Year of Nowruz, and is celebrated by the Parsis in India and by Zoroastrians and Persians across the world. In the Bahá'í calendar, the new year occurs on the vernal equinox on 21 March, and is called Naw-Rúz. The Iranian tradition was also passed on to Central Asian countries, including Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Uighurs, and there is known as Nauryz. It is usually celebrated on 22 March.
  • The Balinese New Year, based on the Saka Calendar (Balinese-Javanese Calendar), is called Nyepi, and it falls on Bali's Lunar New Year (26 March in 2009). It is a day of silence, fasting, and meditation: observed from 6 am until 6 am the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. Although Nyepi is a primarily Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents of Bali observe the day of silence as well, out of respect for their fellow citizens. Even tourists are not exempt; although free to do as they wish inside their hotels, no one is allowed onto the beaches or streets, and the only airport in Bali remains closed for the entire day. The only exceptions granted are for emergency vehicles carrying those with life-threatening conditions and women about to give birth.
  • The Telugu New Year generally falls in the months of March or April. The people of Andhra Pradesh and TamilNadu in India celebrate the advent of New Year's Day in these months. This day is celebrated across entire Andhra Pradesh as Ugadi(meaning the start of a new Year). The first month is Chaitra Masam. Masam means month. This day is a government holiday in TamilNadu too.
  • Kashmiri Calendar, Navreh (New Year): 5083 Saptarshi/2064 Vikrami/2007–08 AD, 19 March. This holy day of Kashmiri Brahmins has been celebrated for several millennia.
  • Gudi Padwa is celebrated as the first day of the Hindu year by the people of Maharashtra, India. This day falls in March or April and coincides with Ugadi. (see: Deccan)
  • Ugadi, the Telugu and Kannada New Year is celebrated by the people of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka ans TamilNadu in India as the beginning of a new year according to the Hindu Calendar. The first month of the New Year is Chaitra.
  • Sindhi festival of Cheti Chand is celebrated on the same day as Ugadi/Gudi Padwa to mark the celebration of the Sindhi New Year.
  • The Thelemic New Year on 20 March is usually celebrated with an invocation to Ra-Hoor-Khuit, commemorating the beginning of the New Aeon in 1904. It also marks the start of the twenty-two day Thelemic holy season, which ends at the third day of the writing of The Book of the Law. This date is also known as The Feast of the Supreme Ritual. There are some that believe the Thelemic New Year falls on either 19, 20 or 21 March, depending on the vernal equinox, this is The Feast for the Equinox of the Gods which is held on the vernal equinox of each year to commemorate the founding of Thelema in 1904. In 1904 the vernal equinox was on a 21st and it was the day after Aleister Crowley ended his Horus Invocation that brought on the new Æon and Thelemic New Year.

April

  • The Assyrian New Year, called Rish Nissanu, occurs on the first day of April.

Mid-April (Northern spring)

The new year of many South and Southeast Asian calendars falls between 13 and 15 April, marking the beginning of spring.

  • Tamil New Year (Puthandu) is celebrated in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the first of Chithrai (சித்திரை)(13 or 14 or 15 April). In the temple city of Madurai, the Chithrai Thiruvizha is celebrated in the Meenakshi Temple. A huge exhibition is also held, called Chithrai Porutkaatchi. In some parts of Southern Tamil Nadu, it is also called Chithrai Vishu. The day is marked with a feast in Hindu homes and the entrance to the houses are decorated elaborately with kolams.
  • Punjabi/Sikh Vaisakhi is celebrated on 14 April in Punjab.
  • Nepali New Year is celebrated on the 1st of Baisakh Baisākh (12–15 April) in Nepal. Nepal follows Vikram Samvat (विक्रम संवत्) as an official calender. (Not to be confused with Nepal Era New year)
  • Assamese New Year (Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu) is celebrated on 14–15 April in the Indian state of Assam.
  • Maithili New Year or Jude-Sheetal too fall on these days.It is celebrated by Maithili People all around the world.
  • Bengali New Year (Bengali: পহেলা বৈশাখ Pôhela Boishakh or Bengali: বাংলা নববর্ষ Bangla Nôbobôrsho) is celebrated on the 1st of Boishakh (14–15 April) in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.
  • Oriya New Year (Vishuva Sankranti) is celebrated on 14 April in the Indian state of Orissa.
  • Manipuri New Year or CHeirouba is celebrated on 14 April in the Indian State of Manipur with much festivities and feasting.
  • Sinhalese New Year is celebrated with the harvest festival (in the month of Bak) when the sun moves from the Meena Rashiya (House of Pisces) to the Mesha Rashiya (House of Aries). Sri Lankans begin celebrating their National New Year "aluth awurudu (අලුත් අවුරුදු) " in Sinhala and "Puththandu (புத்தாண்டு)" in Tamil. However, unlike the usual practice where the new year begins at midnight, the National New Year begins at the time determined by the astrologers. Not only the beginning of the new year but the conclusion of the old year is also specified by the astrologers. And unlike the customary ending and beginning of new year, there is a period of a few hours in between the conclusion of the Old Year and the commencement of the New Year, which is called the "nona gathe" (neutral period). During this time one is expected to keep off from all types of work and engage solely in religious activities. It will fall on 13 April for the year 2009.
  • Malayali New Year (Vishu) is celebrated in the South Indian state of Kerala.
  • In some parts of Karnataka, the new year may be celebrated in mid-April, although it is most commonly celebrated on the day of Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian new year.
  • The Water Festival is the form of similar new year celebrations taking place in many Southeast Asian countries, on the day of the full moon of the 11th month on the lunisolar calendar each year. The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed on 13–15 April. Traditionally people gently sprinkled water on one another as a sign of respect, but as the new year falls during the hottest month in Southeast Asia, many people end up dousing strangers and passersby in vehicles in boisterous celebration. The festival has many different names specific to each country:

June

The Kutchi people celebrate Kutchi New Year on Ashadi Beej, that is 2nd day of Shukla paksha of Aashaadha month of Hindu calendar. As for people of Kutch, this day is associated with beginning of rains in Kutch, which is largely a desert area. Hindu calendar month of Aashaadh usually begins on 22 June and ending on 22 July.

Northern fall (autumn)

  • Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew for 'head of the year') is a Jewish holiday commemorating the culmination of the seven days of Creation, and marking God's yearly renewal of His world. The day has elements of festivity and introspection, as God is traditionally believed to be assessing His creation and determining the fate of all men and creatures for the coming year. In Jewish tradition, honey is used to symbolize a sweet new year. At the traditional meal for that holiday, apple slices are dipped in honey and eaten with blessings recited for a good, sweet new year. Some Rosh Hashanah greetings show honey and an apple, symbolizing the feast. In some congregations, small straws of honey are given out to usher in the new year.[4]
  • In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the New Year, called Neyrouz, coincides with 11 September in the Gregorian calendar between 1900 and 2099, with the exception of the year before Gregorian leap years, when Neyrouz occurs on 12 September. The Coptic year 1723 began in September 2005. The Ethiopian Orthodox New Year, called Enkutatash, falls on the same date as Neyrouz; the Ethiopian calendar year 1999 thus began on 11 September 2006.
  • The Marwari New Year is celebrated on the day of the festival of Diwali, which is the last day Krishna Paksha of Ashvin month & also last day of the Ashvin month of Hindu calendar.
  • The Gujarati New Year is celebrated the day after the festival of Diwali (which occurs in mid-fall – either October or November, depending on the Lunar calendar). The Gujarati New Year is synonymous with sud ekam i.e. first day of Shukla paksha of the Kartik month -, which is taken as the first day of the first month of Gujarati lunar calendar. Most other Hindus celebrate the New Year in early spring. Gujarati community all over the world celebrates the New Year after Diwali to mark the beginning of a new fiscal year.
  • The Nepal Era New year (see Nepal Sambat) is celebrated in regions encompassing original Nepal. The new year occurs in the fourth day of Diwali. The calendar was used as an official calendar until the mid 19th century. However, the new year is still celebrated by citizens of original Nepal, the Newars.
  • Some neo-pagans celebrate their interpretation of Samhain (a festival of the ancient Celts, held around 1 November) as a New Year's Day representing the new cycle of the Wheel of the Year, although they do not use a different calendar that starts on this day.
  • The now deceased Murador Aboriginal tribe of Western Australia celebrated New Years on what is known on present day calendars to be the 30 October. A time of reconciliation and celebration of friendship, the Murador tribe were said to have placed great importance on the past as well as the year that was coming[5]
  • The French Revolutionary Calendar, in force in France from 1793 to 1805 and briefly under the Paris Commune in 1871, began the calendar year on the day of the Southward equinox - September 22, 23 or 24.

Variable

  • 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 Years falling in Gregorian year 2008.

Christian liturgical year

Main article: Liturgical year

Since the 17th century, the Roman Catholic ecclesiastic year has started on the first day of Advent, the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's Day (30 November). According to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the liturgical year begins at 4:00 pm[dubious – discuss] on the Saturday preceding the fourth Sunday prior to 25 December. The same liturgical calendar is followed by churches descended from it, including the Anglican and Lutheran Churches.

The Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar begins on 1 September – proceeding annually from the Nativity of the Theotokos to the celebration of Jesus' birth in the winter (Christmas), through his death and resurrection in the spring (Pascha / Easter), to his Ascension and the Assumption of his mother (Dormition of the Theotokos / Virgin Mary) in the summer.

Historical Christian new year dates

The year used in dates during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was the consular year, which began on the day when consuls first entered office – probably 1 May before 222 BC, 15 March from 222 BC to 154 BC, but this event was moved to 1 January in 153 BC.[6] In 45 BC, Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, continuing to use 1 January as the first day of the new year.

In the Middle Ages in Europe a number of significant feast days in the ecclesiastical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church came to be used as the beginning of the Julian year:

  • In Christmas Style dating the new year started on 25 December. This was used in Germany and England until the thirteenth century, and in Spain from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century.
  • In Annunciation Style dating the new year started on 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation. This was used in many parts of Europe in the Middle Ages. Annunciation Style continued to be used officially in the Kingdom of Great Britain until 1 January 1752, except Scotland which changed to Circumcision Style dating on 1 January 1600, the Act being passed on 17 December 1599.[7] The rest of Great Britain changed to Circumcision Style on 1 January preceding the conversion in Great Britain from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar on 3/14 September 1752. The UK tax year still starts on 6 April which is 25 March + 12 days, eleven for the conversion from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar plus a dropped leap day in 1800 [but not in 1900].
  • In Easter Style dating, the new year started on Easter Saturday (or sometimes on Good Friday). This was used all over Europe, but especially in France, from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. A disadvantage of this system was that because Easter was a movable feast the same date could occur twice in a year; the two occurrences were distinguished as "before Easter" and "after Easter".
  • In Circumcision Style dating, the new year started on 1 January, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ.

Adoption of 1 January

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:

Country Start year[8][9]
Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus[10][11] 1362
Venice 1522
Sweden 1529
Holy Roman Empire (~Germany) 1544
Spain, Portugal, Poland 1556
Prussia, Denmark[12] and Norway 1559
France (Edict of Roussillon) 1564
Southern Netherlands[13] 1576
Lorraine 1579
Dutch Republic 1583
Scotland 1600
Russia 1700
Tuscany 1721
Britain, Ireland and
British Empire
except Scotland		 1752
Greece 1923
Thailand 1941

1 March was the first day of the numbered year in the Republic of Venice until its destruction in 1797, and in Russia from 988 until 1492 (AM 7000). 1 September was used in Russia from 1492 until the adoption of the Christian era in 1700 via a December 1699 decree of Tsar Peter I (previously, Russia had counted years since the creation of the world—Anno Mundi).

Southward equinox day (usually 22 September) was "New Year's Day" in the French Republican Calendar, which was in use from 1793 to 1805. This was primidi Vendémiaire, the first day of the first month.

Time zones

Because of the division of the globe into time zones, the new year moves progressively around the globe as the start of the day ushers in the New Year. The first time zone to usher in the New Year is just west of the International Date Line. At that time the time zone to the east of the Date Line is 23 hours behind, still in the previous day. The central Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati claims that its easternmost landmass, uninhabited Caroline Island, is the first to usher in the New Year.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Anthony Aveni, "Happy New Year! But Why Now?" in The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 11–28.
  2. ^ Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 (Act of the UK Parliament) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo2/24/23/data.pdf - see also http://www.adsb.co.uk/date_and_time/calendar_reform_1752/
  3. ^ Tek Web Visuals, Cochina. "New Year's Day". World e scan. http://www.worldescan.com/Festivity_Newyear.php. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 
  4. ^ Ben, Tzvi (22 September 2006). "Rosh Hashanah: Prayers, Shofars, Apples, Honey and Pomegranates". Israelnationalnews.com. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/112530. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 
  5. ^ Aboriginal Tribes of Australia. Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names Published 1974 page 27
  6. ^ Roman Dates: Eponymonous Years[dead link]
  7. ^ Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland. Edinburgh: W & R Chambers. p. 157.
  8. ^ Mike Spathaky Old Style and New Style Dates and the change to the Gregorian Calendar: A summary for genealogists
  9. ^ "The Change of New Year's Day". Homepages.tesco.net. 1 December 2003. http://homepages.tesco.net/~jk.calisto/calisto/calendars/change_dates_ny.htm. Retrieved 13 November 2011. 
  10. ^ Державні і професійні свята України та інші знаменні дати у січні 2012 року
  11. ^ Новоліття
  12. ^ Denmark named 1 January as the New Year in the early 14th century according to R.W. Bauer (Calender for Aarene fra 601 til 2200, 1868/1993 ISBN 87-7423-083-2) although the number of the year did not begin on 1 January until 1559.
  13. ^ Per decree of 16 June 1575. Hermann Grotefend, "Osteranfang" (Easter beginning), Zeitrechnung de Deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (Chronology of the German Middle Ages and modern times) (1891–1898)
  14. ^ Harris, Aimee (April 1999). "Millennium: Date Line Politics". Honolulu Magazine. http://www.trussel.com/kir/dateline.htm. Retrieved 14 June 2006. 
  15. ^ Greenwich (2008). "Greenwich Meantime, Kiribati". Kiribati Map. http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/pacific/kiribati/map.htm. Retrieved 27 February 2008. 
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