The end of the year is the time when you start making new resolutions and preparing for the coming year. As you count down the minutes to midnight, take a moment to ask yourself why people around the world are celebrating the New Year at this very moment. In this article, we reveal to you why we celebrate the New Year on January 1.
Mesopotamians the Akitu celebrated their 12-day New Year's holiday on the vernal equinox, while the Greeks celebrated the New Year around the winter solstice, December 20. In the Roman era, the month of March marked the beginning of the calendar. Then it is Julius Caesar created the Julian calendar in 46 BC, which determined the new year.
However, even Julius Caesar could not standardize the day. New Year's celebrations continued to move back and forth in the calendar, even falling on Christmas Day in some places, until Pope Gregory XIII introduced in 1582 Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian, Christian or Western calendar is a solar calendar that is currently used almost worldwide. It was succeeded by the Julian calendar, from which it differs in the method of determining leap years.
Although the choice of a new year is essentially arbitrary from a planetary perspective, there is one important astronomical event that happens around the time of the new year. The Earth is closest to the Sun at the beginning of January, and this point is called perihelion.
It is nowadays January 1 almost everywhere recognized as the beginning of the new year, although in some countries they still observe and they rely on their calendar: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Nepal and Saudi Arabia rely on their own calendars.
Also, different religions celebrate the New Year at different times. For example, Jewish calendar it is lunar, and its new year festival, Rosh Hashanah, is usually celebrated between September and October.
Islamic calendar Hijri is also lunar and the time of the new year is significantly delayed. For example, they celebrated the new year 2021 on August 9, the second year will be their new year in the month of July 2022. The Hijra is a historical event and represents the migration from Mecca to Medina. In the literal sense, Hijra means to leave, to break, to leave, and therefore it does not represent an escape, but a readiness for new challenges that follow with arrival in a new environment.
V the Julian calendar, used by the Orthodox Church, is the New Year on January 14.
Chinese new year begins on the first of the lunar calendar, which can be anywhere between January 21 and February 20. The Chinese also call it the Spring Festival, which means the end of the cold period and the beginning of a new season. In addition to China, spring festival they also celebrate in Vietnam, Korea, Laos. Mongolians and Tibetans also follow the lunar calendar.
