The Spring or Vernal Equinox 2022 happens every year on March 20 or 21. This special day, when the sun crosses the celestial equator, marks the middle point between the Winter solstice and the Summer solstice. On the Spring equinox day every spot on the entire planet experiences an equal amount of time in the light and in the darkness. From that day on in the northern hemisphere, each day thereafter we leave behind more of the dark of Winter as we receive a greater amount of the light and warmth of the sun. Now all of nature begins to be revived in earnest after its Winter hibernation.
Although for huge swathes of the global population the new year begins on the first day of January, new year celebrations are held on different dates for some societies and cultures.
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For many people across the globe, the new year begins on the Spring equinox in the Northern hemisphere. Spring—a season of rebirth and the planting of new crops—is, for them, a logical time to start the new year. For them, the middle of Winter doesn’t make sense to be chosen to host new year celebrations.
“March tests our faith. It can summon all the bluster of its namesake to convince huddled mortals that the power of winter, like that of any tyrant, is not soon or highly surrendered. On a night in late March the wind can blow with a force unfelt all winter. Fear not. Beneath the angry skies, fragile as parchment but as irresistible as time, crocuses push their shafts up through the damp earth.” —Michael Judge in The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar.
Somewhere around 2000 BCE, the Babylonian new year began on March 25. Very many cultures in ancient times regarded their new year as the traditional fixed date for the vernal equinox. In ancient Persia and now present-day Iran, the new year, called nowruz meaning ‘new day,’ began and still begins on March 21.
Originally, the ancient Roman calendar had only ten months which we can see reflected in the names of many of our months’ names which are derived from Roman numerals. When a new year began in March, the seventh month was named September (septem from latin meaning seven); the eighth month was named October (octo from latin meaning eight); the ninth month November (novem from latin meaning nine); and the last and tenth month, December (decem from latin meaning ten).
Back then the calendar year was lunar-based and ten moons long, and the remaining roughly 70 days of Winter occurred without being assigned a month name.
The beginning of a new year started the calendar afresh and signaled to farmers to trellis their vines, prune the trees, and sow spring wheat. On this auspicious first day of the new year concurrent with the vernal equinox people could expect equal parts day and night. And the new year observance always took place on the first new moon before the Spring equinox.
The Romans eventually transitioned away from a lunar to a solar calendar as it seemed to better reflect the seasons. But as before, the remaining now roughly 60 winter days were still not considered part of the calendar. The calendar commenced each year with the first day of Spring falling a few days after the Ides* of March putting the new year at approximately the twentieth of March. The 60-day margin of Winter days which existed in a sort of limbo outside of the calendar is how the early Romans handled not truly knowing the actual length of a year.
In about 715 BCE, the months January and February were added to the Roman calendar.
Over time, through continued tampering by various emperors, the calendar was knocked out of synchronization with the sun. In 46 BCE, this precipitated Julius Caesar to decree the start of the new year as the beginning of January and January 1 became a day of great festivities for all Roman people. But even though Julius Caesar had decreed such a change, for some time Romans of city and country continued to celebrate the new year with the coming of Spring. They felt nature was telling them more accurately than any calendar could that the earth was about to be reborn.
But with Christianity taking hold, the Church outlawed the new year celebrations, banning all Christians from participating in any festivities under threat of excommunication. The Church believed the celebrations were pagan and encouraged idolatry since the day’s festivities evolved from the feast of January’s namesake—the two-faced god Janus.
By 567 CE, the Christian Church’s power was massive and so, at the Council of Tours, the start date of the new year was moved from January 1 back to March 25, perhaps to remove potential for too many pagan celebrations. For centuries thereafter all European countries celebrated the new year on March 25.
But in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII was not to be outdone and introduced our now famous and rather inaccurate Gregorian calendar and the start of the new year was officially moved back to January 1.
Not all European countries adopted January 1 as the official opening of a new year right away. The Catholic countries did so, but Protestant countries took their time. It has only been a few hundred years that these northern European countries have observed New Year’s Day as January 1.
In the past, for some native tribes the arrival of certain animals for the hunt or the appearance of certain shoals of fish marked the beginning of another year. In some parts of the ancient Near East, the new year was celebrated in the Fall when rains ended the long drought of Summer.
For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius, the dog star, held its place unrivaled as the most important star in the sky. It formed the foundation of the Egyptians’ entire religious system. The Egyptian calendar system was based on the heliacal rising of Sirius that occurred just before the annual flooding of the Nile during Summer, signaling their start of a new year and new life.
Throughout recorded Western history, ancient Mediterranean cultures have celebrated some kind of new year observance at or around the time of the spring equinox on March 25.
In the northern hemisphere these new year celebrations were a way to rejoice in the resurrection of life. The people acted out the seasonal changes ritually—from the symbolic death of the earth in Winter to its resurrection vibrantly enacted through the sprouting and blossoming that came with Spring.
Throughout the ancient world New Year’s Day was quite logically celebrated in the Spring when the world seemed new once again. After months of long nights and short days, both day and night now lasted an equal amount of time. The people knew that on the vernal equinox the cosmic balance would now swing in favor of the sun.
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Endnotes:
*Ides: (in the ancient Roman calendar) a day falling roughly in the middle of each month (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months) from which other dates were calculated.
Strange but True: A Historical Background to Popular Beliefs and Traditions. N.p., Crux Publishing Ltd, 2014.
Judge, Michael. The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar. United Kingdom, Arcade, 2012.
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