Wednesday December 04, 2024

New Years Day


Fireworks on display in New York for New Years Day

The next upcoming New Years Day is on Wednesday January 1st, 2025.

Celebration\ Observance

Celebrations begin with fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve to bring in the start of the New Year, with many big cities around the world having fireworks shows. Most people have the day off work and many will sleep in to recover from their New Year’s Eve activities. Parties, parades, football games (Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl top level college football), and family time are also part of the festivities. In the United States, the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California is on January 1 each year originally organized to bring people more people out West. This is a time where people will make New Year's resolutions to improve their lives. Common resolutions or promises might include losing weight, quitting smoking, exercising more, and changing jobs.

History

The New Year celebration started as far back as 2000 BC from Mesopotamia (Iraq). Around 153 BC the Romans honored Janus, the pagan god, on this day. January is named after Janus. Julius Caesar and the Roman Senate around 45 BC set January 1st as the start of the year. At this time the Romans instituted the Julian calendar which was later replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. The Julian calendar estimated the year to be 365.25 days which is 11 minutes off per year where the switch to the Gregorian calendar made its accuracy much better only being 27 seconds off per year. The Holy Roman Empire adopted January 1st as the start of the year in 1544 and over time most of the countries around the world have done the same.


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