Why Do We Celebrate New Year On 1st January?

 

New Year is the day at which a new calendar year starts.

The date of New Year’s Day looks so quintessential that it’s almost as nature ordained it. But New Year’s Day is a civil event. Its date isn’t precisely fixed as any natural seasonal marker.

Different cultures celebrated this day accordingly. But the Gregorian calendar is the most extensively followed calendar system today, New Year takes place on January 1 (New Year's Day). This was as soon as the first day of the year in the original Julian calendar and the Roman calendar.

 

Our modern event of New Year’s Day stems from a historical Roman custom, the feast of the Roman god Janus –the god of arising and new beginnings. The title for January moreover comes from Janus, who used to be depicted as having two faces. One face of Janus viewed back into the past, and the one-of-a-kind peered ahead to the future.

 

Astronomical Reason Behind New Year Celebration.

 

For us in the Northern Hemisphere, early January is a logical time for new beginnings. At the December solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, we had the shortest day of the year. By early January, our days are for sure lengthening again. This return of longer hours of daylight had an intense impact on cultures that have been tied to agricultural cycles. It has an emotional and spiritual impact on human beings, even in cities today.

 

The early calendar-makers didn’t be aware of it, however, nowadays we recognize there is every different bit of astronomical specific judgment in the again of go-off the year on January 1. Earth is constantly closest to the image voltaic in its yearly orbit around this time. This match is referred to as Earth’s perihelion

 

Celebrating the new year on January 1 was not a trend since the beginning. The earliest recording of a new year get-together is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, circa 2000 B.C. That these gatherings  – and many different historical celebrations of the new year following it – had been celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, spherical March 20. Meanwhile, the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians commenced out their new year with the autumnal equinox spherical September 20. And the historic Greeks celebrated on the wintry climate solstice, spherical December 20.

 

 

Different New Year According To Different Religions and Countries.

 

But let's explore why people around the world are celebrating the new year at that very moment.

 

It turns out that the new year wasn't generally on Jan. 1, and on the other hand is now no longer in some cultures.

 

Nowadays, Jan. 1 is nearly universally accompanied as the beginning of the new year, although there are a few exceptions like Afghanistan, Ethiopian, Iran, Nepal, and Saudi Arabia count on their very very own calendrical conventions.

 

Different religions also celebrate their New Year's at different times. For instance, the Jewish calendar is primarily based on moons phases, and its New Year's festival, Rosh Hashanah, is generally celebrated between September and October. The Islamic calendar is in addition lunar, and the timing of the new year can go with the flow significantly.

 

For instance, in 2008, the Islamic New Year used to be celebrated on Dec. 29, whilst it will come on Sept. 22 in 2017. The Chinese calendar, meanwhile, is also lunar, then again the Chinese New Year falls between January 21 and February 20.

 

That way India is a very culturally diverse country, have their own unique New Year's...

 

Different New Years In Accordance To Indian Religions

 

According to Hindu Mythology, Goddess Ganga has descended to Earth on this very day. In her honor, human beings gathered along the banks of the river Ganges to take their ritual bath.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati established the Arya Samaj on this day, in the year of1875. Hence, this is a massive day for that community as well. And even Buddhists celebrate their Vaisakha on this day, as it can pay homage to the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of Gautam Buddha.

 

Now there are a few more festivals in India celebrated as new year in different religions:

 

Ugadi: The Telugu and Kannada New Year, usually falls in March or April. The locals of Southern Indian States like  Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka observe the introduction of their New Year's Day in these months. The first month of the new year is Chaitra Masa. That is once again lunar,  as according to the Hindu calendar, the lunar month begins and ends with Purnima (New moon).

 

In the Kashmiri calendar, the tour Navreh marks the New Year in March–April. This holy day of Kashmiri Brahmins has been celebrated for numerous millennia.

 

Gudi Padwa is celebrated as the first day of the Hindu year by way of the people of Maharashtra, and Sanskar Padwa is celebrated in Goa. This day falls from March–April and coincides with Ugadi.

 

The Sindhi festival of Cheti Chand is celebrated on an equal day as Ugadi/Gudi Padwa to mark the social gathering of the Sindhi New Year.

 

The Baloch Hindu human beings in Pakistan and India recognized their New Yearbas Bege Roch in the month of Daardans by their Saaldar calendar.

 

Tamil New Year (Tamil: Puthandu) is celebrated in the South Indian kingdom of Tamil Nadu, on the first of Chithrai (April 13, 14, or 15). In the temple town of Madurai, the Chithrai Thiruvizha is celebrated in the Meenakshi Temple. In addition to all this large Exhibitions and gala's are additionally held in many prominent places of the city, referred to as Chithrai Porutkaatchi. In some components of Southern Tamil Nadu, it is moreover mentioned as Chithrai Vishu. The day is marked with a feast in Hindu residences and the entrances to the homes are embellished elaborately with kolams. The whole residence is embellished with diyas, lights, and many colorful Chandlers.

 

Punjabi/Sikh Vaisakhi is celebrated on April 14 in Punjab by their nanakshahi calendar. This day is no longer just celebrated as New Year Day but additionally to honor the emergence of Sikhism as collective faith and rejoice 1699.

 

Nepal New Year in Nepal is celebrated on the 1st of Baisakh, which is referred to as Losar, which is the first day of the Lunisolar Tibetan calendar, which falls in Mid-April in the Gregorian calendar. Nepal follows the Bikram Sambat (BS) as a respectable calendar.

 

The Dogra of Himachal Pradesh has fascinated their new year Chaitti in the month of Chaitra. Chaitti and Basoa are celebrated as the phase of festivities to follow the New Year in the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh. It is viewed to be very important and auspicious for people residing in this section of India.

 

Maithili New Year or Jude-Sheetal too fall on these days. It is also referred to as the first day of the Maithili New Year. This day generally falls on the 14th of April as the Maithils are living in the Mithila area of India and Nepal. They also now and then refer to this day as Niryana

Mesh Sankranti or Tirhuta New Year.

 

Assamese New Year (Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu) is celebrated on April 14 or 15 in the Indian kingdom of Assam.

 

Bengali New Year (Bengali: Pôhela Boishakh or Bengali: Bangla Nôbobôrsho) is celebrated on the 1st of Boishakh (April 14 or 15) in Bangladesh and the Indian country of West Bengal and Tripura.

 

Odia New Year (Vishuva Sankranti) is celebrated on April 14 in the Indian kingdom of Odisha. It is in addition referred to as Vishuva Sankranti or Pana Sankranti.

 

Manipuri New Year or Cheirouba is celebrated on April 14 in the Indian State of Manipur with applicable deal festivities and feasting. The identity " Cheiraoba" is a combination of the two words, namely, "Chahi" or "year" and "labor", which capability "declaration". So this pageant broadcasts or proclaims the New Year, additionally bidding goodbye to the Past Year.

 

So here we can see that by most of the Indian cultures New Year is celebrated between March and April. Symbolizing and commemorating some prominent dates or events.

 

 

Restoration of New Year Day As January 1.

 

Now as we have discussed different religions and regions celebrating their different New Years, let's have a look at how January 1 was restored as the Final New Year date, and also how it became worldwide popular.

 

Around the sixteenth century, a movement developed for restoration on January 1 as New Year’s Day. In the New Style or Gregorian calendar, the New Year begins on the first of January. Declaring January 1 as the reputable New Year Day used to be no longer a simple one-day process. It took a lot of time to declare it official.

 

Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings the New Year. The early Roman Calendar declared March 1 as the respectable New Year. And the notable factor was once that the calendar simply have 10 months and that beginning with March. And marks of this system can still be visualized in names of the months, September through December, which is placed as our Ninth month through tenth. And names of our months are derived from Latin Numbers as Septem is for "seven", Octo is for "eight, Novem is for "nine" and Decem is for "ten".

 

January Joins the calendar: The first time the New was celebrated on January 1 used to be in Rome 153 B.C. In fact the month of January did not even exist till around seven hundred B.C. The months of January and February have been introduced through the 2nd king of Rome, Numa pontilius. And after that, the new year shifted from March to January, and then it was once marked as the starting of the Civil year. Nevertheless, the new year date was now not continually strictly discovered and broadly observed. Still, many people weren't following this system and had been celebrating the new year on 1 March.

 

Middle-Ages: January 1st was abolished:

The celebrations of the new year on January 1 were viewed pagan and unchristian, and in 567, January 1 was once abolished as the beginning of the year with the aid of the Council of Tours. At a range of times and in quite a several places at some stage in medieval Christian Europe, the new year was once celebrated on Dec. 25, the start of Jesus, and March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation and Easter.

 

Gregorian Calendar: January 1st Restored

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as new year's day. Although most Catholic international locations adopted the Gregorian calendar nearly immediately, it was only regularly adopted amongst Protestant countries. The British, for example, did now not undertake the reformed calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire and their American colonies nonetheless celebrated the new year in March. But after its restoration, they additionally adopted the Gregorian Calendar, and that so their colonies also.

 

It can be an effect on colonization as well

 

One of the factors, why January 1 is prominently celebrated as New Year Day, is that due to the reality most of the Eastern and European countries from worldwide had started to follow the Gregorian calendar and as they have conquered almost all over the world at some point of seventeenth to twentieth century, and their main cause of colonization was once to extract gain out of that particular colony or unfold their culture. And it is the effect of this colonization that till date we are retaining our lifestyle, apart we are following them.

 

And it is because of this, that most of the countries are following the Gregorian style of Calendar system and celebrate their new year on 1 January.

 

Happy New Year!!!

Here's wishing all our readers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. May peace, success, wealth, joy and health abound, and may you all gain all that you desire.