The Beginning of New Year's Celebration

by Lady Scholastica Joycors

At least four millennia ago civilizations around the world began celebrating the beginning of the year. Today most festivities begin on December 31st or New Year’s Eve, which is the last day of the Gregorian calendar, and do not end until the wee hours of January 1st (New Year’s Day). Among the traditions that we are accustomed to in our day are attending parties, watching the ball fall, food, fireworks and making resolutions for the new year.

It appears that Babylon, sometime during the middle of the third millennium BC has the first recorded history of festivities to honor the new year. For the Babylonians in ancient Mesopotamia it represented the first new moon following the vernal equinox, generally a day late in March which had an equal amount of sunlight and darkness, which was the cue to herald in the new year. They held a massive religious festival called Akitu (the Sumerian word for barley which was cut in the spring) which had different rituals for each of its twelve days. One of the most unusual rituals was held on the fourth day of Akitu, which was known as the humbling of the King, this took place to remind the king of his role to serve the will of the sun god Marduk in order to properly serve his community. In this ritual the head priest would strip the king of his regalia and slap him squarely and with great force across his face. If the king teared up it was apparent that Marduk approved him to be king for another year. One great king of note who submitted himself each year for this humiliating procedure was Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BCE). Following this ritual, the king would swear once again his promises and assurances that he would care for all of his people and his clergy whereupon this regalia would be returned.

Throughout history, civilizations around the world developed increasingly advanced calendars, typically linking the first day of the year to an astronomical, agricultural or religious event. For example, in Egypt the new year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising star Sirius. The Chinese New Year begins with the second new moon after the winter solstice. Some celebrated the new year as a religious holiday with the Feast of the Annunciation which celebrated the coming of the Angel Gabriel to Mary where the streets would be filled with processions and people making offerings to Mary. In some places like Venice, the New year began on March 1st, and in other places it began on Christmas or Easter. The Anglo-Saxons celebrated December 25th as the New Year, then the switched it to March 25th in the later Middle Ages, and then to January 1st in the 18th century.

If you lived in Russia you would celebrate the New Year on multiple days. From 1348, New Year’s was celebrated on September 1st. Prior to that, New Year’s was celebrated Match 1st, and in some places, March 22nd. It wasn’t moved officially to January 1st until 1699, by Peter the Great (1672-1725). Russians also celebrate with a New Year’s Tree, Novogodnyaya Yolka, that remains up until January 14th, when Russians celebrate a second New Year’s based on the old Julian calendar, called Old New Year’s, Staryj Novyj God and where Grandfather Frost along with his daughter would pass out gifts to the children.

In England, it was customary to exchange gifts on New Year’s, since it was considered to bring good fortune for the coming year.

In Scotland and Ireland, the appearance of the First Foot or the first person to enter the house after midnight, mattered. It was believed that this person could either make or break a family’s fortunes for the rest of the year. It went even further than that, for some they believed that someone with light-hair would bring good luck, for others, it was a dark-complexioned man/boy, or someone who was flat footed. However, if you were a red head you would not have received a very warm welcome on New Year’s Eve for they were thought to bring bad luck and grief.

In Ireland, New Year’s Eve was known as Oíche Chinn Bliana (Year’s End Night). People banged on the walls and doors of their home to chase out the evil spirits before ringing in the New Year. Irish homes were always spotless to start the New Year off fresh. This was also a time to remember the dead; candles were lit in the windows, an empty place was set at the table, and the door was left unlocked to welcome the spirits of deceased family members who had passed on that year.

In Poland, (as well as several other Eastern European countries) New Year’s Eve is known as Sylvester after St. Sylvester (†335), whose Feast Day is December 31st (and the date of his death). The legend states that St. Sylvester was imprisoned and then slew a dragon named Leviathan, who had escaped at the beginning of 1,000 AD. Leviathan’s defeat was a cause of celebration, and was called St. Sylvester’s Eve. In Poland, young boys would dress up as devils, and play pranks. One New Year’s Day, bread was baked with a ring or cross hidden inside; if the lucky recipient found a ring, it would herald marriage, if they found a cross, it could mean a life in the clergy.

In France and later England January 1st would be celebrated with a riotous event called The Feast of Fools in which a mock ecclesiastical court was held complete with a mock pope. It was a day where the tables were turned and the lower classes dressed up and poked fun at the upper classes. During this feast there was plenty of cross-dressing, gambling, drinking, and risqué behavior (which didn’t set well with the church), this tradition eventually fell away in the sixteenth century.

Is it any wonder why one might have been a bit confused at what time of the year you were in if you were a traveler? Frances and Joseph Giles in their book Life in a Medieval City, said:

A traveler setting out from Venice on March 1, 1245, the first day of the Venetian year; finding himself in 1244 when he reached Florence; and after a short stay going on to Pisa, where he would enter the year 1246. Continuing westward, he would return to 1245 when he entered Provence, and upon arriving in France before Easter (April 16) he would be once more in 1244.

It now makes perfect sense that the world needed a calendar that would put us all on the proverbial same page in order to keep us from being time travelers. I mean the early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each new year beginning at the vernal equinox because if followed tradition. This early calendar was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. Later king, Numa Pompilius, added the months of Januarius and Februarius. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem himself by consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time. After much deliberation it was decided that in order to realign the Roman calendar with the sun, Julius Caesar added 90 extra days to the year 46 B.C. thus creating what we know as the Julian calendar, which closely resembles the modern Gregorian calendar that most of us use today.

As part of this reform, Caesar, designated January 1 as the first day of the year, as his way to honor the Roman god of beginnings, Janus, because his two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and throwing and attending raucous parties. In medieval Europe, Christian leaders desired more days with religious significance and less pagan festivities so they ignored January 1st as the first day of the new year and called it the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ (based on Hebrew tradition of a circumcision occurring 8 days after birth), made December 25th the anniversary of Jesus’ birth, and March 25th as the Feast of the Annunciation. In the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reestablished January 1st as the official New Year’s Day.

Well there you have it, our celebration of the New Year’s Day has gone forward, backward and even a little sideways, but no matter how you celebrate it, I hope that this New Year brings you good fortune, health, and happiness as you ponder the past and look forward to the future.

Bibliography

Alvarez, S. (2015, December 12). Celebrating the New Year, Medieval Style. Retrieved from Medievalists.net: http://www.medievalists.net/2015/12/celebrating-the-new-year-medieval-style/

Editors, H. (2010, February 16). New Year’s. Retrieved from HISTORY: https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-years

Giles, J. &. (1981). Life in a Medieval city (Medieval Life). Harpers Collins.

Holloway, A. (2014, September 28). The Ancient Akitu Festival and the Humbling of the King. Retrieved from Ancient Orgins: https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general-human-origins-religions/babylonian-akitu-festival-and-humbling-king-002128

New Year’s Day. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Day