New Year in Ancient Rome
Four days ago marked the beginning of 2021 CE throughout the entire world. On January 1st, we start a new year, hopeful, looking out for good things to come. Although society is now accustomed to a new calendar year beginning in January, throughout history that was not always the case.
Since the ancient Babylonians, the new year had been recognized on the vernal (Spring) equinox, occurring in late March. A multi-day festival called Akitu was held for the Mesopotamians to celebrate the rebirth of the natural world. This tradition extended into the Middle Ages for some countries.
Later in history, in 46 BCE, when Caesar created the Julian calendar, January 1st was chosen to mark the new year, in honor of the two-faced god looking both ways for whom the month was named: Janus.
Julius Caesar, along with an astronomer named Sosigenes of Alexandria, worked around the solar calendar in order to establish this new calendar system, which is a direct predecessor to the calendar we use today: the Gregorian calendar.
Although “new year” has been celebrated, though at different times of the year, since pagan rituals marked solstices - the Romans were the first to establish anything like the new year’s celebrations we know today.
Roman citizens would visit their neighbors with small gifts, like salt, cake and honey. The way the first day of the year was spent was believed to signify how the rest of the year would go. So it would be spent as leisurely as possible.
Today, it is still a holiday in most parts of the world, and many people use it as a time to set “resolutions.” The changing from one calendar year to another is really arbitrary in terms of anything other than keeping track of time, yet - billions of people have an emotional investment in it. The idea of the year being “new” is powerful, and one thing is for sure - the new years will keep coming.
Bibliography
5 Ancient New Year's Celebrations - HISTORY
New Year in ancient Rome « IMPERIUM ROMANUM
Roman calendar and Roman dates