sea star

"Al Jagger was down in the dumps this time last year, distressed by how commercialization had overwhelmed the holiday's religious roots. His mood didn't brighten on New Year's Day — the first day on the Judeo-Christian calendar.
'People celebrate the New Year all around the world, and they don't have a clue what they're celebrating,' he said. 'The New Year celebrates the life of Jesus.'" :huh:

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/...rylist=orlocal

So I googled it -

"The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago." from http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm

Ojuice5001

Actually, it's partly true. The founders of the Christian calendar wanted New Year's to coincide with the celebration of Christ's Circumcision. That's why our New Year's falls on the day it does.

Of course, celebrations of the new year generally are older than Christianity. Like you say, the Babylonians anticipated the concept of a new year, as did the Mayans. So it's obvious that when non-Christians celebrate New Year's, they're merely engaging in a universal human practice, and not doing it for Christian reasons. And we do it on January 1 because it would be inconvenient and eccentric to be the only ones celebrating New Year's at any other time. (Although, as a pagan, I think it would be nice to celebrate in spring like most ancients.)

And for that matter, almost all the Christians are doing it for the same reasons as the unbelievers. Few know or care about the circumcision rationale, and there aren't that many who even give a thought to the fact that it's been 2005 years since an approximation of Jesus's birth.

Dark soul

Personally i have to agree with Ojuice, since i think that it would make alot more sense to have the New Year at the beginning of spring, so that it comes as everything is comeing alive once again, and not in the middle of winter (for me at least)

Shadowy Man

Isn't that when it used to be? March 1st? That would make September the 7th month, October the 8th, November the 9th and December the 10th, just like they should be. That's also why February is the shortest month and the day added on leap years then. You just add one day to the length of the year.

:huh:

muidiri

Never thought about it that way - it suddenly makes a lot more sense!

jester2459

I think that the numeric prefixes (sept-, oct- nov-, dec-) got out of whack when a couple of caesers added themselves to the calendar with July and August.

As for celebrating in the spring, I'm sure that's been done too. Basically, a lot of people and cultures have figured out that the world seems to go in yearly cycles. Almost all of them made the leap to keeping count of those cycles. And from there it doesn't take much to get to a celebration of the changing of the count (which could happen just about anywhere in the cycle since the nature of a cycle makes a starting point arbitrary). Hell, I have a mini-celebration everytime I'm in my car and notice that it's flipped over another 1000 mile mark.

Dust

Doesn't the Jewish calander (and biblical reference) have the new year in Abib (April) which is when the Hebrews were said to be set free from egypt? :huh:

Heh, and alot of Wiccans claim Hallow's eve as the beginning of a new year, lol.

Asha'man

You are close to the right answer. The problem actually came about when a ceaser moved the start of the year from March to January. I'll peek around for a reference...

Edit:
The Roman Calendar

muidiri

And Chinese New Year is somewhere around February...

MonCapitan2002

Is the Chinese Year based on a Lunar calender? Chinese New Years seems to fluctuate with any given year.