With a tough year coming to an end, we can’t help but hope for a better and brighter future. Of course, the transition to another year wouldn’t be complete without celebrating New Year’s Eve! We deserve to eat good food, reunite with family and relatives, party with friends, and have the best New Year countdown. After all, NYE is one of the most widely celebrated holidays in the world.

However, this occasion didn’t become popular overnight. Several historical moments paved the way to making New Year’s Eve the holiday that we know and love today. Read on to know the history of New Year’s Eve and appreciate the holiday more!

How New Year Celebrations Began

The first known record of New Year’s celebrations began about 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. This occurred at the time of the vernal equinox, which is toward the end of March. Babylonians would have a religious festival named Akitu taken from the Sumerian term for barley. They’d perform various rituals, which would last for eleven days.

Besides celebrating the New Year, Atiku also marked the time that Marduk, Babylonian’s sky god, defeated Tiamat, the evil sea goddess. Meanwhile, the New Year for Persians, Egyptians, and Phoenicians would start in the fall equinox. Greeks used to celebrate the New Year during the winter solstice.

March 1 as the New Year

In the early Roman calendar, there were ten months or 304 days only. Then, it was March 1 that marked the New Year. So, the ninth through twelfth months or September through December that we often hear was first called seventh through tenth months.

January 1 as the New Year 

The origin of January 1 marking the New Year dates back to 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed the solar-based Julian calendar. This was after the old lunar-based Roman calendar became ineffective.

Another reason behind making January 1 the start of the New Year was to honor Janus — the Roman god of beginnings who had two faces. This means that he could go back to the past and move forward to the future.

To celebrate the occasion, ancient people would offer sacrifices to the god of beginnings, add laurel branches to their homes as decorations, and exchange gifts.

However, the New Year celebrations were paganistic. So, January 1 was removed as the start of the year. December 25, the day Jesus was born, was then considered the beginning of the New Year. March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, was also used as a replacement for January 1.

Gregorian Calendar

NYE in the Gregorian calendar occurs on December 31. In late 1582, Pope Gregory XIII implemented this calendar in Rome. Minimal changes were applied to the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar.

As the lunar cycle calendar became a solar year calendar, some days had to be removed as well. So, days after October 4, 1582, were changed to October 15. You can only imagine what people born on October 5 to 14 felt!

While the Catholic church first followed the Gregorian calendar, other European countries, like Germany, Denmark, Russia, and Scotland, slowly adopted it. Today, the Gregorian calendar is also the one used in different countries.

New Year’s Eve: Different Celebrations and Traditions

You can’t say goodbye to 2022 and welcome another year without celebrating New Year’s Eve. Various countries have their own traditions and celebrations, but there are also common ways to celebrate this special occasion.