New Year’s Day: it’s the Head of the Year, the beginning of the year. For those who follow the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Day is January 1st. For those still following the Julian calendar, such as the Orthodox churches, the date is January 14th, but this only applies for religious reasons. It was Julius Caesar who, by introducing the calendar in 46 B.C., established January 1st as the start of the year, which previously began on March 1st.
There seems to have been an older necessity behind this date choice, as the consul Quintus Fulvius Nobiliore was hastily appointed in December to quell a rebellion in Spain in 153 B.C. His nomination came three and a half months earlier than the usual March 15th. The corresponding Roman celebration was dedicated to the god Janus, the two-faced deity who looks at one year and the next. And the month of January derives its name from him. The adoption of January 1st as the mandatory first day of the year was established in 1691 by Pope Innocent XII, who designated this day as the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus. Before this, everyone had their own way of celebrating.
New Year’s Day: customs and traditions worldwide
In England and Ireland, New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25th, while in Spain, the year changed on December 25th. France chose Easter Sunday, Venice opted for March 1st, and Sardinia for September 1st.
There were at least a couple of failed attempts to change the date later on.
The French Republican calendar, created during the Revolution, started the year on September 21st.
In fascist Italy, there was a parallel numbering system beginning on October 28th, the date of the March on Rome.
The Chinese New Year Day changes every year, with the next one starting on January 22nd.
Rituals to ward off evil spirits are observed everywhere at the year’s end. Many Italian cities, along with various foreign populations, traditionally burn the old year in the form of a puppet. Some shoot guns into the air, while others throw burning pieces of wood, along with breaking dishes out of windows.
Going back to ancient Rome, the Treccani encyclopedia recalls the expulsion from the city of Mamurio Veturio, an old man dressed in skins representing Mars, i.e., the old year, on March 14th. Throwing old objects out of windows has the same meaning.
Good Luck Rites
For good luck rites, it starts with proverbs: “New year, new life,” “Good end and better beginning.” Then there are the rites.
In Laos, they pray for the fertility of the earth, throwing water into special holes to cause rain.
Estonia: a cake in the shape of a boar, the breeding pig, was distributed to the servants and livestock as a means of fertilization.
In Belgium, they wish the trees and livestock a happy new year.
Scotland: they walk in procession from east to west, like the sun, behind a man covered in a cowhide.
In Ireland, as was done with the fire of Vesta in ancient Rome, the new fire is lit from which all others are then lit.
And there is no shortage at home of the kiss under the mistletoe and the cotechino and lentils at the table, because every self-respecting society puts at least one culinary rite into play to get the new year off to the best possible start, including the toast.
New Year’s Day in ancient Babylon
As for the horoscope for the new year, in ancient Babylon the New Year’s festival, Zagmuk, as it was called by the Sumerians, or Akitu in Akkadian, meaning “the force that revives the world,” was the most sacred of calendar celebrations. It fell roughly between March and April, lasted 12 days, and symbolized the triumph of the god Marduk over Tiamat, the goddess who personified primordial chaos.
For this purpose, on the fourth day of the celebrations, the Enûma Eliš (“When on High”), a sacred cosmogonic poem, was publicly recited. Closer and more rural is the rite of throwing objects like beans and grain and determining from their fall what the omens are for the new year. The real novelty is then always the one sung by Lucio Dalla, that even this new year will pass.
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