From Ancient Rome to Today: Happy New Year
The new year is coming up very quickly. We could talk about New Year’s resolutions or New Year’s Eve, but this year we want to tell you about the origins of New Year’s Day.
Did you know that the calendar year used to consist of just 10 months, consisting of 304 days? Back then, the New Year started on March 1. Romulus, the founder of Rome, created this calendar. In fact, the month of January didn’t even exist until about 700 B.C., which is when Numa Pontilius, the second Roman king, added January and February to the calendar. New Year’s Day was moved to January because this is when the new Roman consuls were elected. The new holiday took a while to catch on, as many people stuck to celebrating on March 1. Old habits …
New Year’s Day used to be dedicated to the Roman god Janus, from whom the month of January derives its name. This calendar was used until it fell out of sync with the sun. As a result, Julius Caesar decided to re-evaluate the calendar in 46 B.C. He worked with mathematicians and astronomers to determine what the new calendar should consist of, resulting in the Julian calendar, which is much like the Gregorian calendar currently in use. Caesar decided that the first day of the year would remain January 1st. He wanted to keep January the first month of the year since it was originally in honor of the Roman god Janus.
Back in medieval times, Christians replaced January 1 with days like December 25 and March 25 because New Year’s celebrations were considered pagan, but January 1 was officially reinstated as New Year’s Day in 1582. We suppose the thinking was that you don’t have to be in Rome to do as the Romans do.
That’s enough history to fill the next twelve months. From all of us here at Minich MacGregor Wealth Management, we wish you a Happy New Year! May you always stay in sync with the sun!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar
http://www.history.com/topics/new-years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year’s_Day
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/newyearhistory.html