Staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve New Year’s Eve is a tried and true celebration. In fact, celebrating the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).
The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year, because it is a season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January first, on the other hand, has no astronomical or agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.
The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison. The Romans continued to observe the New Year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors, so it soon became out of synchronization with the sun.
In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year, but tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the New Year, but in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year go on for 445 days.
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the New Year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. As Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations. During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years, and January first has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations, for only about the past four hundred years. Many people choose to celebrate New Year's Day with a nice brunch for family and friends. |
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