middletowneye: Happy New Year! Welcome In 2023 With Open Arms!

HAPPY NEW YEAR’S DAY-JANUARY 1, 2023!

Happy New Year-January 1, 2023.

How did the New Year's Day holiday come about? Four thousand years ago in ancient Babylon they began the New Year in March to coincide with the beginning of Spring or the Vernal Equinox following the first full moon after Spring's arrival. They celebrated the New Year with a Religious event called "Akitu" that lasted for eleven days which "involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days" according to History.com's article "New Year's."

It wasn't until Julius Caesar reign during the Roman Empire that he updated the early Roman calendar of ten months and 304 days. In 46 B.C., Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar "by consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time," according to History.com. This Julian Calendar "closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today," from History.com. Julius Caesar began the New Year as January 1st "to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties," according to History.com.

Christian leaders in Medieval Europe changed the date of the New Year from January 1st to dates that had more religious value such as December 25th-Jesus Christ birth and March 25th-the Feast of the Annunciation. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII returned New Year's Day to January 1st of each year according to the History.com article "New Year's."