Have you ever thought that the timing of New Year's Day is really terrible?

It makes more sense to have it at the Spring Equinox or something, if we’re going by seasons.
Some of the magic would be gone though. :)

The Roman calendar began the year with March. (Suddenly ‘September’, ‘October’, ‘November’ and ‘December’ make sense, hmm?)

Not to start another religious discussion, but guess who was responsible for the change to January?

Yeah. To me Spring is definitely the real beginning of the year. Ah, Spring…it can’t get here soon enough.

I wouldn’t mind seeing New Years closer to Springtime. Isn’t that season recognized as a time for renewal and freshness? When you put New Years so close to Christmas time, that seems like an awful lot of holiday activity to try and pack into a one week time frame.

@Grisson- Julius Caesar moved the new year from March to correspond with the Kalends of January (Jan. 1).

Also, New Year’s is still celebrated on Samhain (“Halloween”) by some. The year is finished, it’s now the dead time.

@AstroChuck: Isn’t that wrong? I got shit on Fluther once when I said that. Someone jumped down my throat.

@laureth Samhain is sort of the antithesis of New Year (Beltaine, May Day) in the old druidic holidays. [Edit] Celebration of new life vs. a celebration of death

@asmonet @AstroChuck The source for the moving of New Year was an article I heard on NPR regarding the whole calendar oddities (Why do July & August both have 31 days, etc…). If it was Julius who changed it, I stand corrected. But it seems like he would have changed the names of the numbered months if that had been correct.

Huh. Looks like recreationists have it all wrong then.

The Bahai new year, Naw-Ruz, is March 21st

@laureth Interesting, though the site does state it is the cycle boundary, from what I’ve read Samhain is more associated with harvets and the end of things than with the beginning of things. I suppose we can’t overlay our concept of what ‘New Year’ is all about on the old Celtic traditions. Perhaps they would have called it ‘End Year’ in this day and time.

@Grisson: So who did you think changed it? Because I think you’re right.

I’m thinking the Gregorian calendar was named after Pope Gregory XIII.

I understood caveat: I was wrong once.. that time when I though I was… that it was the church moving New Year to coincide with when Christ was born a random date to begin with in order that Christ’s birth would be ‘the beginning’. Yet another example of the church Shanghai-ing other cultures’ holidays for their own purpose.

It would seem odd, in that case, that Christ’s birth is celebrated as the last major holiday of the year.

@laureth And that the liturgical year would begin with the start of Advent (around the first of December).

During the Middle Ages under the influence of the Christian Church, many countries moved the start of the year to one of several important Christian festivals — December 25 (the Nativity of Jesus), March 1, March 25 (the Annunciation), or even Easter. Eastern European countries (most of them with populations showing allegiance to the Orthodox Church) began their numbered year on September 1 from about 988.

wiki

And the cross-quarters. Don’t forget the cross-quarters.

@Grisson- July and August already had 31 days before they were changed from Quintilius and Sextilius.

Sextilius sounds dirty.
Could be me.

Quint Sextilius sounds like a porn star.

@asmonet- Yes, I know. Most of the world didn’t adopt January as the start of the new year until many centuries later. The US didn’t change new year’s day from March to January until the 18th century.
I was just pointing out that the change originally had nothing to do with the church.
And I was nitpicking. I can do that because I am Astro freakin’ Chuck.

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway. Yes, I think it’s a shame that the day people typically pick to make resolutions such as hitting the gym or quitting smoking is the beginning of the depressing time of the year. I never make resolutions Jan. 1st anymore. I make all of mine to coincide with actual changes in my life, such as a new semester or a new phase of my life in some other way. I’ve found them much more successful, and I recommend it to anyone who’ll listen. Just like Wachovia. Okay, well I used to, before it was bought by Wells Fargo. Now I’m not sure what I should do, because Wachovia still rocks out, but it seems silly to tell people how awesome a bank is, when that bank doesn’t really exist anymore. But I digress, just like everyone.

I live in paradise and it’s always spring here. Problem solved!

Easy, squeazy——Celebrate New Year’s and make life changes at the fiscal New Year, July 1st.

@AstroChuck Ah, I stand corrected. The version I was quoting was ‘widely repeated but certainly wrong’, according to Wikipedia.

I hate the New Year! I just think: All are getting older. 1 less year that my grandmother will not be with me! I just dispise the New Year.