Why does the new year start on January 1st?

Weather of Arabia - The New Year begins in most countries of the world on January 1, due primarily to historical reasons, and not to astronomical reasons. However, this was not always the case, other dates served as the start of the calendar, including March 25 and December 25. So how did January 1 become New Year's Day?

How did the new year start on the first of January?

The story began during the reign of the Roman King Numa Pompilius (from 715 to 673 BC), Numa revised the Roman Republican calendar so that January replaced March as the first month, and January was named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, As he had two faces, one side looking to the past, one side looking to the future, the Romans made vows and vows to the god Janus to celebrate the New Year, however, there is evidence that January 1 was not the official start of the Roman year until 153 BC.

There were then several changes to the calendar, but later it turned out that it needed changes due to a miscalculation of leap years, as the cumulative effect of this error over several centuries had caused different events to occur in the seasons. Thus, Pope Gregory XIII presented a revised calendar in 1582, In addition to solving the problem of leap years, the Gregorian calendar restored the first of January as the beginning of the new year.

Countries adopt the Gregorian calendar and celebrate the New Year on January 1

While Italy, France, and Spain were among the countries that immediately accepted the new calendar, Protestant and Orthodox countries were slow to adopt it. It was not until 1752 that Great Britain and its American colonies began following the Gregorian calendar, and before that they celebrated New Year's Day on March 25.

Over time, non-Christian countries also began to use the Gregorian calendar, but many countries that follow the Gregorian calendar also have other traditional or religious calendars, and some countries have never adopted the Gregorian calendar, so the year begins on dates other than January 1st. Ethiopia, for example, celebrates the New Year (known as Inkutatash) in September.

Celebrating the New Year in the past on the day of the equinox

In the past, some New Year's celebrations took place on the equinox, the day when the sun was above the equator, so that the length of night and day were equal.

In many cultures, the vernal equinox in March marked a period of transformation and a new beginning, so cultural celebrations of the New Year were common on the day of the equinox. The autumnal equinox in September also had proponents who celebrate it as the start of a new year, like the French republican calendar that emerged during the French Revolution and was used for about 12 years between the end of 1793 and 180, with the new year beginning in September.

As for Greece, they celebrated the New Year on the day of the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year.

Today, although many celebrate the New Year on January 1, some cultures and religions do not. Chinese New Year is familiar to many of us, which is celebrated for weeks in January or early February, and this year, The Chinese New Year - symbolized by the rooster this time - will begin on January 28.

The beginning of the year is indirectly related to astronomical events

The beginning of the year on January 1 is indirectly related to astronomical events. For the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, the day reaches its shortest duration on the day of the winter solstice at the end of December, after which the day period begins to increase again.

In addition to the longer days here in the Northern Hemisphere, there is another omnipresent event that occurs at the beginning of January every year, which also relates to the Earth's year. It was determined based on our orbit around the sun, the Earth's perihelion, which is the passage of the Earth at its closest point to the sun, which occurs every year on the first of January as it happened on January 4 this year .