History Of New Year's: Why Is It January 1?
By December 26, 2021
What makes January 1 a new year? There's nothing special about the first of January in any cosmic sense, and it doesn't fall on a solstice, so why this arbitrary date? Well, it hasn't always been this way. In fact, some of the earliest recordings of the concept of a new year can be traced back to the Babylonians, who celebrated the beginning of the Earth's journey around the Sun with a harvest festival known as Akitu, which lasted for 11 days, at the vernal equinox (usually March or April).
Ancient Romans also initially celebrated the beginning of the year in March, but around 700 B.C.E., King Numa Pompilius added another two months to the year, Januarius and Februarius. They were supposed to be tacked onto the end, but then Caesar came along and made January the beginning because that's when the Romans inaugurated their new consoles and the month's namesake, Janus, was the god of beginnings and transitions whose two faces looked into the past and future. It made sense on a symbolic level, but that's also why the months of September through December, which literally translate to the seventh through tenth months, are named after the wrong numbers. You can't have everything. Other than the rescheduling, however, New Year's celebrations remained largely the same. Many traditions of the previous Saturnalia festival, the older Roman New Year celebration, still carried over, like the frisky New Year's kiss.
