The modern calendar begins on January 1. The day is marked by festivities and jubilations across the corners of the globe as the world steps into a new year at midnight. However, can you imagine a new year around March or December?
It could have been the case, had most of the countries not adopted the modern calendar that begins each year on January 1. For centuries, people across geographical boundaries and civilisations devised their own methods of calculating dates and seasons.
The calendars have previously begun on several days including March 25 and December 25. So, how did January become New Year’s Day?
Arriving at the modern calendar and its beginning on January 1 was not an easy affair as it took almost a century before the empires and civilisations debated and upgraded to finally arrive at a common calendar, thanks to Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII for their revolutionary interventions. Here is a brief history of the calendar and the New Year as we see it now.
Why Jan 1 Was Considered New Year?
The first time January 1 was considered as the beginning of the new year was in 45 BCE. The Roman calendar before that began in the month of March and consisted of 355 days. An additional 27-day or 28-day month was sometimes added between February and March.
However, it was Roman dictator Julius Caesar who reformed the calendar after coming to power in the late first century BCE. Though the Julian calendar gained popularity, large parts of Europe did not accept it till well into the mid-16th century CE.
What Early Calendars Look Like?
The earliest known calendar was established by Romulus, the founder of Rome in the 8th century BCE. The calendar began in (Martius) March and ran only for 304 days or 10 months with an unassigned winter period, according to Time.
In the 7th century BC, Rome’s second king, Numa Pompilius, who came to power a year later, made it a 12-month year by adding the months of Januarius and Februarius. The calendar divided the year unevenly into 12 months and followed the lunar cycle.
The Roman calendar frequently fell out of sync with the seasons and an additional month had to be introduced—Mercedonius—now and then to get it back on track.
Reforms by Julius Caesar
When Julius Caesar came to power in 46 BC, he attempted to reform the calendar by taking advice from astronomers and mathematician Sosigenus.
Sosigenus suggested doing away with the lunar cycle and following the sun instead, like the Egyptians did. By 45 BC, the new Julian calendar was created and the year was calculated at 365 and ¼ days. Caesar added 67 days to the year 46 BCE so that the new year in 45 BCE could begin on January 1.
The date of January 1 was chosen to honour the Roman God of beginnings, Janus, who is believed to have two faces- one looking back into the past and the other to the future, according to a report in The Indian Express. It also introduced an extra day every four years, what we now know as a leap year.
However, with the spread of Christianity, the celebration of a Roman God was seen as a pagan ritual in many parts of Europe. The Medieval Europe Christian leaders sought to celebrate the beginning of a new year on a day with more religious significance, like December 25, the day of Christmas or March 25, as part of the feast of Annunciation.
Total Number of Days in Solar Calendar
There was an 11-minute error made by Caesar and Sosigenus in calculating the number of days in a solar year. The total number of days in a solar calendar is 365.24199 rather than 365.25 that Caesar had calculated.
The gap of 11-minutes every year, which added up to about 11 days by the year 1582. By the mid-15th century, the solar cycle was short by an additional 10 days.
In order to fix the miscalculation of the Julian calendar, Aloysius Lilius, the Italian scientist, devised a new system whereby every fourth year would be a leap year.
But century years that were not divisible by 400 were exempted, like the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but not 1700, 1800 and 1900. These revisions were formally instituted by the papal bull of February 24, 1582, setting off a furious debate among religious leaders and scholars.
How Countries Adopted Jan 1?
Though much of the world including Catholic countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal adopted the new Georgian calendar for its accuracy, Protestant countries like England, its American colonies and Germany held off till about the end of the 18th century.
In 1752, the English Parliament abandoned the Julian calendar and adopted the new calendar. The last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar was Greece in 1923.
Though some countries have their own calendars, the Gregorian calendar has now been widely adopted as the international standard civil calendar for governments and businesses.
In India, the Saka calendar which begins with Chaitra in March, is used along with the Gregorian calendar. In China, the year begins on the second new moon following the winter solstice, around January-end or February. In the Islamic calendar, the year starts with the month Muharram and follows the lunar cycle.
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