New Year's Day

Celebrating the beginning of a new year is an ancient custom dating back to at least 2,000 BC. It is believed to have started in Mesopotamia (in what is now Iraq). Then, it was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox (in March for us). The date for celebrating varied throughout the years, but New Year's Day was usually recognized in some way.

The Julian calendar had miscalculated leap year, and the date for Easter drifted, causing a new calendar to be adopted. The Gregorian calendar, which is still used today, corrected this; and it was adopted in 1582. It set New Year's Day as January 1. However, not all countries adopted the new calendar immediately. It was widely accepted in predominately Catholic nations, but Protestant ones were slower. For example, Great Britain and its American colonies didn't completely adopt the reformed calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire officially celebrated the New Year in March.

To complicate matters, however, the countries of Western Europe adopted January 1 as the day to celebrate the New Year before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. In Tudor England, New Year's Day was celebrated along with Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, as the three main events of Christmastide. But however one looks at it, New Year's Day has been celebrated on January 1st for many years.

_________________________________