Naturalist's Almanac

January 1 is an insane day to celebrate the New Year. It's not connected to any solar, lunar, or other annually recurring natural event. Nor is it agricultural, religious, or even very convenient.

But civil time and the global business reckonings that have come to depend on it require new beginnings on January 1. So thanks to some complex decisions made by Julius Caesar back in 46 B.C., we're stuck with this date. What are our choices if we'd like to break with tradition?

We could return to the earliest New Years in recorded history and celebrate with the ancient Mesopotamians, some of whom started their year with the new moon nearest the spring equinox, others of whom started theirs with the new moon nearest the fall equinox.

Other spring possibilities are March 1, which was favored by the early Romans, or March 25, which was favored by early European Christians. Other fall possibilities include the Jewish New Year, which happens in either September or October because it depends on the moon, and the Celtic New Year, which always happens on November 1 because it depends on the sun.

A more dramatic break with traditon would be to abandon all Middle Eastern, Jewish, Christian, Roman, Celtic, and English roots and celebrate with the Chinese. They count the new moons after the winter solstice and start their lunar New Year with the second one — which occurs sometime between January 20-21 and February 20-21. Historically, they also used to celebrate a solar New Year that began around February 4 — the time of year they called the Beginning of Spring.

Yet another option, which has definite appeal, would be to forget about New Years altogether. In the cycle of the seasons there is no real beginning or ending, so why bother to stop or start again what's essentially continuous?

Was Julius Caesar a joker who saddled us with an arbitrary New Year? Or was he perhaps a bit like Janus, the Roman god of gateways and beginnings, who was capable of looking both backward and forward at the same time?

Looking backward, Caesar saw the need for an agreed upon New Year. Looking forward, maybe he saw that future civilizations would need a fixed and mathematically calculable New Year that could be accepted across boundaries and cultures without respect to past traditions. As of 2000-plus years later, his choice of January 1 seems to be serving the purpose.

MORE INFORMATION

New Year - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year

This Wikipedia entry for the New Year has lots of information and lots of links.

New Year Traditions Around the World at FatherTime's Net
http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm

This is an Australian Web site and it has ads, but it offers a bit of information on just about every New Year that is celebrated around the world.