If you look long back into the history of human civilization, you’ll find the New Year being celebrated on different dates by different groups of people across the length and breadth of the globe. Celebrating January 1 as the New Year’s Day is only a matter of the last few centuries.
In 153 B.C, it was the Romans who first observed the first day of January as the beginning of a new year. But this wasn’t for any seasonal or agricultural reasons; the Romans chose it simply for civil reasons—it was the day when the newly elected consuls would assume their new positions in the Roman empire. Prior to this, the day of the vernal equinox, March 25, was their New Year’s Day. And the Christian Europeans also took this date as the kickoff of a brand new year ! But the switchover from March 25 to January 1 posed a serious problem in the calculation of the years. Some years later, in 45 B.C, Julius Caesar attempted to solve the confusion with the calendar by changing the New Year Day from January 1 to the more logical dates of solstices or equinoxes. But that year, January 1 was a new moon day and changing it would’ve spelt bad luck for them. However, Caesar did change the calendar system and because of his contributions in this calendar reform, the Roman Senate bestowed Caesar the honor of naming a month after his name. Henceforth, the month ‘Quintilis’ came to be recognized as ‘July’.
There were not any significant reforms in the calendar until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII introduced further changes in the calendar system and finally gave shape to the today’s system of calendar calculation and division of the year. Not just that, he also reinforced January 1 as the New Year Day, its pre-Christian connotations notwithstanding. This Gregorian calendar, based on the Roman model, was soon adopted by the Catholic countries. However, it took a little time for the Reformists to follow suit. Great Britain and its American colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar in the year 1752 and before long, this came to be recognized as the official calendar in all countries over the world.
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