New Year’s History and Why Do We Celebrate New Year’s Eve
New Year’s day, obviously celebrated on the first of January each year, has a very different history. In this article, you will be knowing the History of New Year’s Day.
When was it first celebrated?
It all started in 2000 BC, where it was celebrated in the mid-March, in Mesopotamia. The calendar had just ten months and it started from the month of March.
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This day was celebrated during Vernal equinox, around the middle of March. This early Roman Calendar started from March and since it had ten months, the last four months were; September (Latin word of Seven) October (Latin word for eight), November (Ninth) and December (Tenth).
Hence, The New Year’s Day began on 1st March.
Till 700 BC, there was no January and February. Finally, a ruler of Rome, Numa Pompilius, added the months of January and February to the Roman Calendar.
Since, first January was the beginning of the civil year when the two New Roman Officials began their duties, it was the marked as the New Year Day. However, many states still continued celebrating it on First March.
Since the previous Roman calendar was based on the Lunar system, it was replaced by a solar based calendar introduced by Julius Caesar. This solar based calendar marked the New year Day only on first of January.
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Even after this day, some Europeans did not celebrated it on first of July. They used to consider it as pagan’s holiday and avoided celebrating it. Therefore, many Christians used to celebrate it on the day when Jesus was born, 25 December, First March. So, there was a lot of confusion. Different states were celebrating it on different dates.
Hence, in the year, 1582, Pope Gregory X111 introduced the Gregorian Calendar that was adopted immediately by many Europeans.
This calendar also marked the beginning of the year from January and 11 days were cut out from the year. Year by year, all the states accepted the calendar Like the government of Britain adopted it in 1752.
How did the celebration of New Year’s Eve began?
Coming to the New Year’s Eve, before Christianity spread, the Europeans used to celebrate many festivals and had many holidays. As soon as most of the Europeans accepted Christianity and were converted to Christians, they started merging these festivals with new year Day and the New Year’s Eve that is Celebrated in the evening of 31st December. There are many more calendars except the Gregorian calendar that do not celebrate new year according to it, like the Chinese calendarr, Islamic calendar etc.
On the contrary, people all around the world celebrate the New year eve with full joy and happiness; The night falling before the New year Day is enjoyed by all, adults and children; meal parties, drinks, there are fireworks, dance parties and a lot more enjoyment.
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Hopefully, you guys enjoyed reading the article and don’t have any more questions regarding the New Year Day and the New Year’s Eve.