Home Bijzondere dagen - Artigenda Society New Year’s Day

New Year’s Day

Date

Jan 01 2026

Time

All day

What is the Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian calendar is a successor to the Julian calendar. The calendar was named after Pope Gregory XIII (1572 – 1585), who found it necessary to replace the Julian calendar. It would eventually become the world’s official calendar for almost all countries in the world. The calendar was introduced in 1582.

The precursor: the Julian calendar

The Julian calendar owes its name to the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar (12/13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC). The calendar was later adopted in the Christian world.

The differences

The difference between the two calendars is that any year divisible by four is a leap year. With that, a year based on the Julian calendar would consist of 365.25 days. The disadvantage is that a tropical year lasts 365.2422 days. This ensures that a calendar would be 7.8 days behind the sun per thousand years. The system of leap years was modified in the Gregorian calendar so this problem had to be solved. A leap year is then a year divisible by four, except when it is divisible by a hundred and not by 400. Thus, the Gregorian calendar is only 0.3 days behind the sun.

So a Gregorian year lasts 355.2425 days, which is equivalent to 365 days, 5 hours, 49 hours and 12 seconds.

Aloisius Lilius

The pope himself was not responsible for devising the calendar, although his name was attached to it. Its creator was Aloisius Lilius (c. 1510 – c. 1576). He recorded all this in the work “Compendium novæ rationis restituendi kalendarium.

The leap year

So what about a leap year? Simple, that is a year of 366 days instead of 365 days. February then consists of 29 days. The extra day is due to the lost hours (six hours) for tropical years and compensation is needed every four years. So except when the year is divisible by 100 or is a multiple of 400.

This is all quite complicated when you consider that this does not even get you to New Year’s Day itself. There is plenty to say about that too. Why is 1 January the start of the new year? Yes, because of that calendar.

People were always of the opinion that something new was needed. A fresh start or a new beginning. In many cases, people linked this to the changing seasons. A good time was thought to be the beginning of spring. The oldest known examples are the Assyrians, who made the calendar start at the beginning of spring. On the first day of the new calendar, the king was replaced by a slave for a day and thus all calamity was averted for a year.

Others

Others assumed some other natural phenomenon was important. The Germanic tribes, on the contrary, thought that the longest night was important. That was when the days got shorter again. From December 21, they celebrated the Feast of Joel and this lasted 12 days. This ended around the current turn of the year.

With the advent of the Julian calendar under Caesar, more things changed in the Roman Empire. Until then, people celebrated the new year at the beginning of spring (around the beginning of March). As soon as people started using the new calendar, this became January or the month in which people worshipped the god Janus. The months we still use today are weird in that respect, as they are derived from Roman names.

Another calendar

The Roman calendar actually looked quite different. For instance, it was once based on the position of the moon and started in March and ended with February. You shouldn’t think about it now, but weeks consisted of eight days. It remained that way until the year 400 when the Christian era was introduced.

The first adaptation

The first adjustment, because it had become a mess, took place thanks to an adjustment by none other than Numa Pompilius. We do not have certainty about this, as Numa Pompilius is a king who may or may not have lived sometime between 716 and 673 BC and ruled Rome (before Rome became a republic). Another interesting fact: he is said to have been the successor of Romulus. You can read more about that on this page. So there is no hard evidence for this adaptation by this Numa Pompilius. The calendar therefore looked as follows:

The first month: Martius (March)

Named after the god Mars.

The second month: Aprilis (April)

Derived from the period, aperture, apertures mean as much as 'to open.' It could also be a derivative of Aphrodite (Venus), as the worship of this goddess began in this month.

The third month: Maius (May)

This was the third month of the calendar and was also known as men's Maius. In this month, the Games of Flora (Ludi Florea) took place in honour of the god Flora. Probably because this was the third month and because this month ended with an odd number (31), people thought this was an inappropriate month.

The fourth month: Iunius (June)

Mensis Iunius, the fourth month, At this point it gets a bit confusing because the original month Inius would later become Iliius. This was because Caesar liked to name a month after himself. So in the old situation, it was Iunius and then Quintilis (July). The name can be disputed. Publius Ovidius Naso or simply Ovid thought that the name contains references to the goddesses Juno and Juventas, among others.

The fifth month: Quintilis (Fifth)

The god Jupiter took centre stage in this month. In addition, people worshipped Neptune and Apollo during this month. People also celebrated agricultural festivals in this month. The month was a "long" month with 31 days.

The sixth month: Sextilis (Sixth)

There is still some confusion about this month. Did this month have 31 days or not before the month was given a different place in the year? Indeed, the sixth month became the eighth month after Caesar's reform and thus became August. The month had 31 days even before the calendar reform, so nothing changed. The month was a summer month.

The seventh month: Septembris (Seventh)

With 29 days, this was another short month. Later, this month would become the ninth month, but oddly enough, the month would keep the name. However, an extra day was added. During this month, the Ludi Romani took place. This was a religious festival held from 12 to 14 September and was considered the highlight of the month. The central theme was the worship of the god Jupiter.

The eighth month: Octrobris (Eight)

This month consisted of 31 days and retained its pre-existing name even after the introduction of the Julian calendar. The month marked the period of harvest, as well as the end of military campaigns that had begun in the month of Martius. Like the month of Martius, it was the month of the god Mars.

The ninth month: Novembris (Ninth)

Novembris (ninth) This month also retained its name after the introduction of the Julian calendar. Central to this month: the Ludi Plebeii. Call it a popular entertainment on a grand scale for the common people of Rome. Translated is speaks of the Plebeian Games. These lasted from 4 to 17 November and consisted of athletic competitions and theatrical performances.

The tenth month: Decembris (Tenth)

This month also retained its name after the introduction of the Julian calendar. Central to this month: the Ludi Plebeii. Call it a popular entertainment on a grand scale for the common people of Rome. Translated is speaks of the Plebeian Games. These lasted from 4 to 17 November and consisted of athletic competitions and theatrical performances.

Ianuarius, Februarius and Mercedonius

Now of course you are thinking: so where did the months Ianuarius and Februarius go? These were added by Caesar during the reforms we know as the Julian calendar. He gave the last two months of the year these names. That was not the only thing he did. He also did away with Mercedonius. This month was also known as Mercedinus, Intercalary or Intercalary. The month was needed as compensation for timekeeping and was thus a correction (more via this link). There didn’t have to be anything wrong with that when this Mercedonius was applied consistently. So that meant it would be applied every two or three years. That was not always done. It led to a mess. You can read more about this at this link.

The only question is, what did the calendar look like next? Not like the calendar as we know it today:

Martius – 31 days.
Aprilis – 30 days.
Maius – 31 days.
Iunius – 30 days.
Iulius – 31 days.
Sextilis – 30 days.
September – 31 days.
Octobris – 30 days.
November – 31 days.
December – 30 days.
Ianuary – 31 days.
February – 29 or 30 days.

That does not get us there yet. Under Gaius Octavius, better known as Imperator Caesar Augustus or simply Augustus, the calendar was changed again.

Martius – 31 days.
Aprilis – 30 days.
Maius – 31 days.
Iunius – 30 days.
Iulius – 31 days.
Augustus – 31 August.
September – 30 days.
October – 31 days.
November – 30 days.
December – 31 days.
Ianuary – 31 days.
February – 28 or 29 days.

So although Julius Caesar gets a lot of ‘credit’ we should thank Augustus, when you look at the above list. Especially when you consider that the adaptation of February is already equal to the number of days of our modern version of February.

New Year on January 1

Once the Catholic Church gained more and more influence, people also started thinking about the turn of the year. How could they ensure that old customs and traditions – which were considered pagan – were eradicated? There were numerous ancient cultures besides the old Roman customs that had their celebrations. Therefore, it was decided that on January 1 the High Feast of Mary Mother of God should be celebrated. That was the eighth day after Christmas, making it an octave day.

So since then, we have been ‘stuck’ with New Year’s Day on January 1. Not quite, by the way, because not everyone celebrates New Year’s Eve on January 1. Consider, for instance, the Chinese New Year. That is celebrated on the first to the fifteenth day of the first month of the Chinese calendar. That is not the only different date. Think of Islamic New Year, Hindu New Year, Eastern Orthodox New Year, Jewish New Year and so on.

Time zones

If you do stick to the Gregorian calendar, the year starts on 1 January. Only, because of the different time zones, it is at a different time for everyone. The first in the world to celebrate the New Year are the inhabitants of Kiribati. Somewhere in the United States or Canada, they then finally celebrate the turn of the year around 11 a.m. Dutch time on 1 January. You can check out the different time zones for yourself via this page.