[Namron] Happy New Year :) (depending on your period ;) )

[Siren Song]

I hope everyone had a fun ans safe New Year celebration. May everyone have a wonderful 2009!

A History of the New Year
by Borgna Brunner

The celebration
of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon. The
earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been
in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the
vernal equinox, in mid-March. A variety of other dates tied to the
seasons were also used by various ancient cultures. The Egyptians,
Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox,
and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice.
Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings in the New Year

The
early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar
had just ten months, beginning with March. That the new year once began
with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the
months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months,
were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem
is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is
"ten."
January Joins the Calendar

The first time the new year
was celebrated on January 1st was in Rome in 153 B.C. (In fact, the
month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C., when the
second king of Rome, Numa Pontilius, added the months of January and
February.) The new year was moved from March to January because that
was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly
elected Roman consuls—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began
their one-year tenure. But this new year date was not always strictly
and widely observed, and the new year was still sometimes celebrated on
March 1.
Julian Calendar: January 1st Officially Instituted as the New Year

In
46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was a
vast improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was a lunar
system that had become wildly inaccurate over the years. The Julian
calendar decreed that the new year would occur with January 1, and
within the Roman world, January 1 became the consistently observed
start of the new year.
Middle Ages: January 1st Abolished

In
medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the new year
were considered pagan and unchristian like, and in 567 the Council of
Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. At various
times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the
new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March
25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.
Gregorian Calendar: January 1st Restored

In
1582, the Gregorian calendar reform restored January 1 as new year's
day. Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar
almost immediately, it was only gradually adopted among Protestant
countries. The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed
calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire —and their American
colonies— still celebrated the new year in March.

Lady Siobhan ingenTigernaich
House of Cynrede Spîritus
Seneschal, Canton of Skorragardr
Nordsteorra, Kingdom of Ansteorra
It's not the color of the Text but how you use it.


      
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