In many countries the
New Year
begins on January 1. However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, for centuries, other dates marked the start of the calendar, including March 25 and December 25. So how did January 1 become New Year’s Day?
We can partly thank the Roman king
Numa Pompilius
. According to tradition, during his reign (c. 715?673 BCE) Numa revised the
Roman republican calendar
so that
January
replaced
March
as the first month. It was a fitting choice, since January was named after
Janus
, the Roman god of all beginnings; March celebrated
Mars
, the god of war. (Some sources claim that Numa also created the month of January.) However, there is evidence that January 1 was not made the official start of the Roman year until 153 BCE.
In 46 BCE
Julius Caesar
introduced more changes, though the
Julian calendar
, as it became known, retained January 1 as the year’s opening date. With the expansion of the
Roman Empire
, the use of the Julian calendar also spread. However, following the fall of Rome in the 5th century CE, many
Christian
countries altered the calendar so that it was more reflective of their religion, and March 25 (the
Feast of the Annunciation
) and December 25 (
Christmas
) became common New Year’s Days.
It later became clear that the Julian calendar required additional changes due to a miscalculation concerning
leap years
. The cumulative effect of this error over the course of several centuries caused various events to take place in the wrong season. It also created problems when determining the date of
Easter
. Thus, Pope
Gregory XIII
introduced a revised calendar in 1582. In addition to solving the issue with leap years, the
Gregorian calendar
restored January 1 as the start of the New Year. While Italy, France, and Spain were among the countries that immediately accepted the new calendar, Protestant and Orthodox nations were slow to adopt it. Great Britain and its American colonies did not begin following the Gregorian calendar until 1752. Before then they celebrated New Year’s Day on March 25.
Over time non-Christian countries also began to use the Gregorian calendar. China (1912) is a notable example, though it continued to celebrate the
Chinese New Year
according to a
lunar calendar
. In fact, many countries that follow the Gregorian calendar also have other traditional or religious calendars. Some nations never adopted the Gregorian calendar and thus start the year on dates other than January 1. Ethiopia, for example, celebrates its New Year (known as Enkutatash) in September.