Happy New Year from the Carrier Mills-Stonefort School District!
The first of January represents the fresh start of a new year after a period of remembrance of the passing year. Publications have year-end articles that review the changes during the previous year. There are also articles on planned or expected changes in the coming year. Many New Year’s Day traditions include spending time with friends and family, as well as enjoying sports and other entertainment. The New Year is an opportunity for people to reflect on the good and bad in the year that is ending, and to resolve to do better in the coming year.
New Year’ Day celebrations often include large displays of fireworks at midnight, which welcome in the New Year. Many of these celebrations are broadcast around the world as the New Year begins in each time zone. Tonga and Kiritimati (Christmas Island), part of Kiribati, are examples of the first places to welcome the New Year while Baker Island in the United States and American Samoa are among the last places to greet January 1st.
New Year’s Day is observed on January 1st, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. Civilizations around the world developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event. In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The first day of the Chinese new year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice.
The early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each new year beginning at the vernal equinox. Later, King Numa Pompilius was credited with adding the months of Januarius and Februarius. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem by consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time. He introduced the Julian calendar, which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today. As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year.