New Year's Day hasn't always been January 1
December 27, 2019
Countries around the world celebrated the new year at different times based on the calendar they chose to follow. The first of the year would align based on an astrological or agricultural event, which explains the difference in calendars. For Egyptians, it was after the Nile River flooded. In China, it was after the second new moon.
The earliest recorded new year’s celebration occurred in March (on the Gregorian calendar) about 4,000 years ago in Babylon, in an ancient Mesopotamian city located in what is present-day Iraq. Babylonians observed Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley) to celebrate the new year with an 11-day religious festival. This festival allowed them to practice rituals, elect a new ruler or approve the continuation of the current ruler and celebrate the victory of the sky god, Marduk, over the sea goddess, Tiamat. (Right photo: Chinese New Year Mongkol Chuewong/Getty)
What we know as a 365-day year used to be much shorter. Romulus, the founder of Rome and ruler in the 8th century BC, created and enforced a 10-month calendar with 304 days. A later Roman ruler, Numa Pompilius, added the two months of Januarius and Februarius, but the calendar eventually fell out of sync with the sun.
Julius Caesar ultimately created the Julian calendar, which is closely related to the Gregorian calendar the world uses today. Caesar is credited with choosing January 1 as the first day of the year to honor the month’s namesake, Janus, the god of beginnings. Janus was believed to be a two-faced god who could look behind into the past and forward into the future.
Today, the world continues to celebrate the new year in a variety of festive (and delicious) ways. In Spain, a dozen grapes are hung right before midnight to symbolize hope in the months ahead. Financial success is symbolized by eating legumes and lentils in Italy and black-eyed peas in the southern United States. In Cuba, Austria and Hungary, pork is eaten to represent progress and prosperity. Ring-shaped cakes and pastries are eaten in the Netherlands, Mexico and Greece to show how the year has come full circle. Good luck and fortune are represented in Sweden and Norway by a hidden nut in rice pudding. (Left photo: NYE Copenhagen, dailyscandinavian.com)
It is encouraging to know that for at least 4,000 years, the new year has always been perceived as a fresh start with hope, joy and pending success.
What are some of your New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day traditions?
Times Square Seth Wenig/AP
This blog was updated December 31, 2020.
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Citations:
“New Year’s.” History.com. Accessed December 2019. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-years
assisted with our Summer Reading Kickoff at the beginning of summer. Each intern operated a STEAM station and helped the Children’s Department with various projects such as, prepping Summer Reading materials, Summer Reading registration, book displays, and programs. They maintained weekly shelf-reading assignments which included pulling duplicate copies from our fiction and nonfiction collection as well as processed Book Sale items, and they have assisted the Circulation Department by pulling morning holds and processing daily delivery. 
d that volunteering “gave her an excuse to read”. She never put books on hold before this summer, and now has a large stack. She also discovered ebooks and audiobooks and sometimes requests them at the same time!
nded community room, a dedicated children’s program room, a quiet reading room, a calming room, five group study rooms, a laptop bar for customers who want to bring their own devices, many collaborative spaces and a vending café that is stocked/equipped with snack and drink machines for customers to enjoy at their leisure.
The new South Boulevard was designed with accessibility in mind. There are two entrances to the branch, one in the front (facing South Boulevard) and one in the back of the building, along with ample parking on both sides. It’s also just a 0.6-mile walk (about 12 minutes) from the Lynx Blue Line’s Scaleybark Station.
There was a “classic Hollywood” film series at Main Library before I came on-board, but it had been dormant for several years.A year or two after the Main Library’s renovation in 1989, I realized there existed within the community a great desire to see entertaining films of historic and/or educational significance. And this presented me with a wonderful opportunity, since I had a background in Film History and Film Production before working at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
My first film series in 1992 was a six-month retrospective of the comedies, westerns, and musicals of director Howard Hawks, which included Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Rio Bravo and others. In the 28 years since that first series, I have screened at least one feature-film or documentary per month for Library customers. In 28 years with a minimum of 12 movies per year, that’s at least 336 movies. Now that’s a lot of movies!
The response to my film programs has been gratifying. Typically, I draw between 40 and 60 attendees per film, including a core group that attends almost every film (regardless of title or subject).
The gateway drug to my life-long-moviemania was the films of Alfred Hitchcock. My parents were permissive and indulgent when it came to movies. I remember (as if it were only yesterday) my mother taking me to a double-feature of Psycho and The Birds when I was only 12, at Charlotte’s old Thunderbird Drive-in. That night was a life-changer! Now I teach the films of Alfred Hitchcock to college students, and a few years ago I facilitated a year-long film series at Main Library and ImaginOn that consisted of 20 Hitchcock classics.
While the movies in my Final Four (or Fab Four) are not top-tier personal favorites, they do represent specific stages or milestones in my life. Like always, prior to the screening, I will provide detail about each film and its importance to the development of my film education. 
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Next Stop Greenwich Village, The Last Picture Show, and Amarcord are wonderful movies, and I have been waiting (many years) for just the “right opportunity” to present them to my film attendees. That time is now.
