What does new years have to do with Jesus?

Answer 1

New Year's day itself doesn't have anything to do with Jesus. Jesus was Jewish and celebrated Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah) which occurs in September. But nearly every culture and country has a calendar that marks the changing of one year into another. And the calendar date of 2012/2013 does have something to do with the Christian religion, and so, tangentially, with Jesus. Christians marked time by when they believed Jesus was born, so they began to determine the calendar by BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini-- in the year of our Lord). Thus, 2012 refers to 2012 years since the birth of Jesus (it should be noted that not many scholars believe he was really born in the year 0, but that is a different conversation).

While the Christian calendar has become commonly used by almost everyone, non-Christian religions use different terms to describe the calendar year -- for example, Jews use BCE (before the Common era-- the era commonly accepted by everyone, even if the world is much older than the birth of the Christian religion; since Jews do not believe Jesus was the Christ, Jews do not use BC. It should be noted that some scholars also prefer BCE, since they feel that time should not be marked by the beliefs of one religion or another). But even though the calendar we use may be Christian in origin, these days, the new year's celebration is generally secular, and all religions participate in it in whatever ways their culture encourages.