How it was decided that the year would start on January 1st

How it was decided that the year would start on January 1st Getty Images via BBC The transition from December 31st to January 1st is marked around the world with fireworks, music, parties, hugs and gifts. But have you ever wondered why this is precisely the date of change from one year to another? The answer goes back to pagan Roman festivals, the calendar introduced by the Roman emperor Julius Caesar more than two thousand years ago, and a pope named Gregory 13th. Gods and myths For the ancient Romans, January was important because it was the month consecrated to the god Janus (hence Ianuarius, which means “January” in Latin). In Roman mythology, Janus is the two-faced god, of beginnings and ends, of transitions. “It’s associated with looking forwards and backwards,” Diana Spencer, a professor at the University of Birmingham, in England, explained to the BBC. “So if there’s a time in the year when you have to decide that ‘here we start again,’ it’s only logical that this is it.” The period also coincides, in Europe, with the time when the days begin to get longer, after the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Janus was the Roman god of ‘beginnings and endings’ Getty Images via BBC “For Rome, this had a powerful resonance, because it happens after those terrible short days, when the world is dark and cold and nothing grows,” the professor adds. “It’s kind of a period of pause and reflection.” As the Romans gained more power, they began to spread their calendar throughout the vast empire. Christianity After the fall of Rome, when the Catholic Church established itself as a preponderant force in the Middle Ages, January 1st came to be considered an excessively pagan date in some regions. Given this, many of the countries where Christianity predominated wanted to change the New Year to March 25th, the date that marks the appearance of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. “Although Christmas is when Christ was born, the Annunciation is when it is revealed to Mary that she will give birth to a new incarnation of God,” Spencer told the BBC. “This is the moment when the story of Christ begins, so it would make sense for the new year to begin there.” In the 16th century, however, Pope Gregory the 13th introduced the Gregorian calendar and January 1st was reestablished as New Year in Catholic countries. The name of the ‘Gregorian’ calendar comes from Pope Gregory the 13th Getty Images via BBC England, however, which had rebelled against the pope’s authority and professed the Protestant religion, continued to celebrate New Year’s Eve on March 25 until 1752. That year, however, an act of Parliament brought the British into line with the rest of Europe. Today, most countries follow the Gregorian calendar — which is why fireworks take to the skies on January 1st of each year. See the videos that are trending on g1

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