New Year celebrations to reign in a New Year with various religious customs, traditions and superstitions have followed many generations of tribes, civilizations, religious organizations and governments around the world; each hoping or praying for renewed hope, prosperity even luck in the year ahead.
According to, http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-years, New Year Celebrations and traditions have taken place for approximately four millennia. Historically the Babylonians were the first civilization to recognize the end of one year and the beginning of a new year.
The Babylonians acknowledged the beginning of a new year in March after the first full moon following the Vernal Equinox or Spring Equinox. In celebration religious festivities were held to worship and honor the mythical gods for the harvesting of Barley. Politically it was an important time for the King. At the beginning of each New Year it would be determined if the current ruling King would continue to reign or be renounced to new leadership.
Julius Caesar is credited for the Julian calendar and recognizing the start of a New Year at the beginning of the January month. This was a part of the reform he instituted during 46 B.C. The name of the first month of the year, January, was chosen to honor Janus, the Roman God of new beginnings. Today we follow the Gregorian calendar, which closely resembles the Julian calendar.
During the time of Julius Caesar, Medieval European Christen leaders, decided to honor the birth of Christ, as Christians do today on December 25 of each year, a time period bringing forth new beginnings for Christians.
Pope Gregory XIII, in 1852, recognized the beginning of a New Year as a time to celebrate the coming of a new year, a new beginning on the first day of January.
Today, December 31, there will be celebrations to put an end, saying good-bye, to the 2016-year and on January 1, 2017 New Year celebrations…a new beginning!
Happy New Year
-Tonya Steele
