Why Is January 1st The “New Year”? | Happy New Year | The Dr Binocs Show | Peekaboo Kidz

Hey, little kitty, get ready. Jan 1st is just a few hours away. So? So, we are going to celebrate the new year as soon as the clock hits midnight on 1st Jan. Why on 1st Jan? Wait a minute. That's actually a great question. So before we enter a blissful new year, let us take this opportunity to answer this age-old question. Why is Jan 1st the new year? Zoom in! Almost the entire world recognizes New Year's Day on Jan 1st. But you'll be surprised to know that this wasn't always the case. Yes, in many ancient cultures like Mesopotamians, the first new moon after the vernal equinox that occurs in March was celebrated as the New Year, whereas the Greeks partied around the winter solstice on December 20th, while the Egyptians celebrated it on the 20th of July. But then, how did Jan 1st become New Year's Day without any natural or seasonal significance attached to this date? Well, for that, we need to travel back to 715-673 BCE and visit the ancient Roman Empire to meet their second king, Pneuma Pompilus, who is somehow responsible for the new year as we know it today. Yes, the Romans were already following a 10-month calendar that began in March and continued only till December. But King Pneuma wasn't satisfied with it as he wanted to cover the 12 cycles of the moon. So, to do so, he added the months Januarius and Februarius, bringing the calendar to 12 months. However, Jan 1st was not made the official start of the Roman year yet as the calendar wasn't a public document and still had issues. Then in 45 BC, Julius Caesar came into power and demanded a reformed version that became known as the Julian Calendar which had 365 days with February 29th as a leap year every 4 years. And if you want to know why they added a leap year, please check out our detailed video on the same afterward. Once the calendar was set, Julius decided to observe January 1st as the first day of the year to honor the month's namesake Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and to celebrate its diplomats taking over the office on that day. Then with the spread of the Roman Empire, the Julian Calendar reached other places as well. But January 1st was still not a standardized day as other cultures continued to celebrate the new year according to their religious beliefs. Then in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII saw that the widely used Julian Calendar still had many problems. So he adjusted the calendar to more accurately reflect the amount of time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun and make it more in sync with the changing seasons. In addition to it, the Gregorian Calendar fixed January 1st as the start of the new year. Though the selection of the new year's date is assumed to be a random event from a planetary standpoint, however, there is one significant astronomical event that occurs around this time. And that is, the earth is closest to the sun in early January, a point known as the Perihelion. And today, almost all cultures recognize the 1st of Jan as the start of the new year. Did you know, some nations never adopted the Gregorian Calendar and thus start the year on dates other than January 1st? Yes, Ethiopia for example celebrates its new year known as Enkhu Tatash in the month of September. Hope you had fun today. Until next time, it's me and little kitty wishing you all a very very happy and prosperous new year.