New Years Eve in History
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New Year’s is one of the oldest of all holidays celebrated, first observed in ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago. Around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first visible crescent of the new moon after the first day of spring, being a logical time to begin a new year — the season of rebirth, planting new crops, and of blossoming.
Babylon 600BC painting. Mural near the reconstructed Ishtar gate, depicting the palace quarter of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. The Ishtar gate is shown in the
top left corner.
The Romans continued to observe the New Year in late March, but their calendar was continually meddled with by a number of emperors so that the calendar became out of synchronization with the sun. To set the calendar right, the Roman senate declared January 1st as the beginning of the New Year in 153 BC.
Representation of a sitting of the Roman Senate: Cicero attacks Catilina,
from a 19th-century fresco.
Tampering continued until Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 46 BC, once again establishing January 1st as the New Year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.
The first of January was dedicated by the Romans to their God Janus of Gates and Doors — a very old Italian god — commonly portrayed with 2 faces … one regarding what is behind and the other looking toward what lies ahead. Hence, Janus represents the reflection on the activities of an old year while looking forward to the new.
Roman bust of Janus, Vatican.
The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, with a leap day added to February every 4 years, and so the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long. It remained in use into the 20th century in some countries as a national calendar, but has generally been replaced by the modern Gregorian calendar.
Ancient Egyptians originally celebrated the New Year with the Feast of Opet around the middle of June. Statues of the god Amon together with models of his wife and son would be taken by boat down the Nile from Karnak to Luxor, where the people would sing, dance and feast for 24 days before transporting the statues back to the temple. Phoenicians and Persians proclaimed the beginning of the New Year on the Autumn Equinox
Wall painting from tomb of Antefoker depicting dancing Egyptians, Middle Kingdom.
Greece began the tradition of using a baby to signify the New Year around 600 BC, and celebrated their god of wine Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of Dionysus as the spirit of fertility.
Dionysus with panther, satyr and grapes on a vine,
in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy)
The image of a baby with a New Years banner to symbolize the New Year was carried over to early America by the Germans, which they had used since the 14th century. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.
Left – Stork and Baby New Year / J.C. Leyendecker’s December 28, 1907
cover of The Saturday Evening Post, right – Baby New Year with Father Time
The tradition of making of New Year’s resolutions dates back to the early Babylonians, whose most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.
The first New Year’s rooftop celebration on One Times Square was in 1904, along with a fireworks display. The New York Times created the event to launch its new headquarters in Times Square and commemorate the renaming of Longacre Square to Times Square.
The first Ball Lowering celebration on top of One Times Square — now a worldwide symbol of the turn of the New Year — was held on December 31 1907, and now seen via satellite by more than one billion people annually. The original New Year’s Eve Ball was 5 feet in diameter, weighed 700 pounds, made of iron and wood and was decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs.
One Times Square. Photo Interrupt
Some believe that the coming year’s luck could be affected by what they do or eat on the first day of the year, so it’s become common to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends to ring the New Year in. It was once thought that the first visitor on New Year’s Day would bring either good or bad luck for the rest of the year.
Particular New Year foods have also been believed to bring luck. Many cultures consider anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, as it symbolizes ‘coming full circle,’ completing a year’s cycle. The Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.
Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas, often complemented by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is also a good luck vegetable eaten on New Year’s Day — the leaves are considered a sign of prosperity, being symbolic of paper currency. In some locals, rice is a lucky food to eat on New Year’s Day.
“Auld Lang Syne” is sung at the stroke of midnight to ring in the New Year in nearly every English speaking country in the world, partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700’s and first published in 1796 after his death. The Scots title “Auld Lang Syne” translated to English literally means “old long ago,” “old long since,” “long long ago,” “days gone by,” or “the good old days.”
Sources: BCR News and Wikipedia
Tags:celebration holidays New Year New Years Eve
Christ Mass is the oldest eve…. so there are many ancient histories….. I liked the post much for gathering all the information. Nice job