What is and when is New Year’s Day? The response is a bit more complex than the public might realize. Preliminarily, the definition of a “year” is something to consider. When celebrating the New Year, it is helpful to know exactly which new year you are discussing. Different cultures, countries and ages have measured time in diverse ways, with some basing the year around the sun and others by the moon.
The United States uses the Gregorian calendar based on the solar year. A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun, which is approximately 365 days. Consequently, that means New Year’s Day is celebrated on the first of January of every year. This year it will occur on Sunday, January 1, 2023. According to time and date, the first country to officially enter 2023 was the Republic of Kiribati, an island country in Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean.
The lunar New Year varies and takes some calculating, i.e., one lunar year or 12 full cycles of the moon, is more or less 354 days. Chinese Lunar New Year is the most known and popular season in that genre and starts at sunset on the day of the second new moon following the Winter solstice. Accordingly, the next occurrence of the same is January 22, 2023. Similarly, Islamic New Year, which also observes a lunisolar or lunar calendar is at less fixed points relative to the solar year.
New Year’s Eve, or December 31, is not an officially recognized Federal holiday in the United Sates. Regardless, many people enjoy celebrating the occasion and count it as one of their favorite holidays. It follows that prior to celebrating New Year’s Day, a New Year’s Eve countdown and other festivities throughout the preceding night anticipate the joy and importance of an old year concluding and the promise of a “new” or fresh start. In 2022, New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday and the First will be on a Sunday. which means if a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is the legal holiday, i.e., January 2, 2023.
New Year’s Day, January 1, is the first officially recognized Federal holiday on the calendar in the United States. In 1870, the U.S. Congress passed a law that declared New Year’s Day, together with Christmas Day and Independence Day as National holidays.
Celebrating the first day of another year in the world has been an historical tradition for over a millennium. However, New Year’s Day, as most of the world currently celebrates it, on January 1, is a relatively recent invention. In fact, there have been a number of various days selected to mark the beginning of a new year.
The first recorded New Year celebration occurred in Mesopotamia about four thousand years ago. That civilization decided upon the vernal equinox, which is around March 20th, to mark the start of their new year. Thereafter, there are records of other ancient civilizations, including the Egyptians, Persians and Phoenicians, picking the autumnal equinox, i.e., more or less September 20th, to be the start of their new year. The ancient Greeks chose the winter solstice, around December 20th, to commence the new year.
The Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, who was determined to end all the confusion, established a standardized calendar that would follow the solar year. After consulting with scientific experts, in or about 46 B.C., he introduced the Julian calendar. In that calendar, January 1st was established as the official first day of the New Year. This circumstance coincides with the time of year that the Earth is nearest to the sun. It is also in honor of Janus, pagan god of gateways and beginnings as well as the god of January, known for having two faces, i.e., one face looking forward to the future and one face looking backward to the past.
Finally, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII slightly corrected the Julian calendar thereby creating the Gregorian calendar, which is the standard most of the world uses today. He reestablished January 1st as New Year’s Day as celebrated in modern times.
The foregoing is just a brief and general overview of New Year’s Day.
If you have any additional Questions regarding the foregoing or have any legal issue or concern, please contact the law firm of CASERTA & SPIRITI in Miami Lakes, Florida.