New Year festival

New Year festival, any of the social, cultural, and religious observances worldwide that celebrate the beginning of the new year. Such festivals are among the oldest and the most universally observed.

History and development

The earliest known record of a New Year festival dates from about 2000 bce in Mesopotamia, where in Babylonia the new year (Akitu) began with the new moon after the vernal equinox and in Assyria with the new moon nearest the autumnal equinox (mid-September). For the Egyptians and Phoenicians the year began with the autumnal equinox (September 21), for ancient Persians it began on the vernal equinox (March 21), and for the early Greeks it began with the winter solstice (December 21). On the Roman republican calendar the year began on March 1, but after 153 bce the official date was January 1, which was continued in the Julian calendar of 46 bce.

In early medieval times most of Christian Europe regarded March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year, although New Year’s Day was observed on December 25 in Anglo-Saxon England. William the Conqueror decreed that the year begin on January 1, but England later joined the rest of Christendom and adopted March 25. The Gregorian calendar, adopted in 1582 by the Roman Catholic Church, restored January 1 as New Year’s Day, and most European countries gradually followed suit—e.g., Scotland in 1660, Germany and Denmark about 1700, England in 1752, and Russia in 1918.

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Buddhism: New Year and harvest festivals

Global variations

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Those religions and cultures using a lunar calendar have continued to observe the beginning of the year on days other than January 1. In the Jewish religious calendar, for example, the year begins on Rosh Hashana, the first day of the month of Tishri, which falls between September 6 and October 5. The Muslim calendar normally has 354 days in each year, with the new year beginning with the month of Muharram. Nowruz, an ancient Zoroastrian festival, is celebrated as a cultural new year in Iran and other parts of the Middle East and Central Asia with Persian influences. The Chinese New Year is celebrated officially for a month beginning in late January or early February. Other Asian cultures celebrate the day at various times of the year. In southern India the people of Kerala celebrate the new year as Vishu and the people in neighboring Tamil Nadu as Puthandu on April 14. Tibetans observe the day as Losar in February, and in Thailand the holiday, called Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April. In Japan the New Year holiday Shōgatsu is a three-day celebration from January 1 to 3.

Customs and traditions

Many of the customs of New Year festivals note the passing of time with both regret and anticipation. The baby as a symbol of the new year dates to the ancient Greeks, with an old man representing the year that has passed. The Romans derived the name for the month of January from their god Janus, who had two faces, one looking backward and the other forward. The practice of making resolutions to rid oneself of bad habits and to adopt better ones also dates to ancient times. Some believe the Babylonians began the custom more than 4,000 years ago. These early resolutions were likely made in an attempt to curry favor with the gods. In the West, particularly in English-speaking countries, the nostalgic Scottish ballad “Auld Lang Syne,” revised by the poet Robert Burns, is often sung on New Year’s Eve.

Symbolic foods are often part of the festivities. Many Europeans, for example, eat cabbage or other greens to ensure prosperity in the coming year, while people in the American South favor black-eyed peas for good luck. For Ugadi in southern India, a special culinary preparation called ugadi pachadi combines multiple flavors, and whether a person eating it tastes a sweeter or more bitter flavor is considered indicative of that person’s year to come. Throughout Asia special foods such as dumplings, noodles, and rice cakes are eaten, and elaborate dishes feature ingredients whose names or appearance symbolize long life, happiness, wealth, and good fortune.

Because of the belief that what a person does on the first day of the year foretells what that person will do for the remainder of the year, gatherings of friends and relatives have long been significant. The first guest to cross the threshold, or “first foot,” is significant and may bring good luck if the person is of the right physical type, which varies with location. First foot traditions are observed, for example, in Scotland, Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.

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The New Year’s Eve celebrations at London’s Trafalgar Square and Sydney’s Port Jackson draw large crowds.

Many people mark the new year with religious observances, as, for example, on Rosh Hashana. Buddhist monks are presented with gifts on the day, and Hindus make oblations to the gods. In Japan visits are sometimes made to Shintō shrines of tutelary deities or to Buddhist temples. Chinese make offerings to gods of the hearth and wealth and to ancestors.

New Year’s Eve celebrations in the United States

In the United States, celebrations of New Year’s Eve are characterized by public gatherings. Times Square in New York City draws large crowds, and the countdown to the dropping of an electronic ball there to signify the exact moment at which the new year begins is televised worldwide. The first Rose Bowl Game was played in Pasadena, California, on January 1, 1902, and college football games have come to dominate American television on New Year’s Day. The Tournament of Roses parade, featuring floats constructed of live flowers, and the Mummers’ Parade in Philadelphia are popular New Year’s Day events.