LISTEN TO "AULD LANG SYNE"

New Year Around The World

Various emperors tampered with the Roman calendar until in 153 BC, the Roman Senate declared the beginning of the New Year as January 1^st. Julius Caesar in 46 BC, established the Julian Calendar with January 1^st as the start of the New Year. The Romans named January after their god Janus who has two heads. One head looked back to the year gone by and the other head looked ahead in the year to come.

Traditions during the festivals have some similarity in most countries which includes; exchanging gifts, decorating their homes during the days of the festival and making New Year's resolutions.

The commencement of the New Year would be any of numerous religious, social, and cultural observances worldwide. These festivals are some of the oldest and most universally observed. Generally the include rites and ceremonies which express mortification, purgation, invigoration, and jubilation over life's renewal. This renewal is the essence of the New Year. It symbolizes in varying degrees the explicitness in world cultures, a remembrance or repetition of the creation of the cosmos on the symbolic anniversary of its creation, in order that the gods, the cosmos, and the community may be strengthened.

In Mesopotamia, about 2000 BC, is the earliest-known record of a New Year's festival. The New Year (Akitu) commenced with the new moon nearest the spring equinox (mid-March; Babylonia) or nearest the autumn equinox (mid-September; Assyria). For the Persians, Egyptians and Phoenicians the autumn equinox (September 22 or 23); for the Greeks until the 5^th century BC, with the winter solstice (December 21 or 22). For the Roman republican calendar the year began on March 1, after 153 BC, the official date was January1, and this was confirmed by the Julian calendar (46 BC).

The Jewish religious calendar the year begins with the first day of the month of Tishri (September 6 to October 5; Rosh Hashana). For the European Christian in early medieval times, the New Year started March 25 (Annunciation Day). The English Anglo-Saxon regarded New Year’s Day as December 25. William the Conqueror decreed that the year start on January 1, but, later, England began its year with the rest of Christendom on March 25. January 1 was restored as New Year's Day by the Gregorian calendar (1582), immediately adopted by Roman Catholic countries. Other countries slowly followed suit: Scotland, 1660; Germany and Denmark, about 1700; England, 1752; Sweden, 1753; and Russia, 1918. Observances of the secular New Year in the West vary regionally but typically entail the preparation of a customary meal (such as “hoppin' John,” a dish of black-eyed peas and rice, in the U.S. South) and the making of personal resolutions for the coming year.

Most Eastern New Year festivals retain a distinctly religious character. In Dravidian southern India, the Tamil New Year is celebrated at winter solstice with the three-day Pongal festival, marked by religious pilgrimages and the ritual boiling of new rice. In Bangladesh the New Year is marked by the worship of the Ganges River.

Pre-Buddhist indigenous and Hindu influences are prominent in Southeast Asian festivals. In Thailand, Trut, or New Year (March/April), is of a mixed character. Buddhist monks exorcise ghosts from the vicinity and are presented with gifts. Oblations are made to various gods of Hindu origin. As people meet, they playfully throw water on each other. Gambling, usually frowned upon, is permitted for the three-day festival.

Chinese New Year is celebrated officially for a month beginning in late January or early February. It is preceded by an expulsion of demons and by theatrical performances. Offerings are made to gods of hearth and wealth and to ancestors. Tibetans observe the New Year in February with feasting, visiting, and a relaxation of monastic discipline.