Why the odd time for the New Year

[Tog]

I tried to search for this, but searching for "New Year+Date" was not very helpful.

Why was the date of New Years day set when it was? I kow the Chinese New Year is based on the Lunar cycle, and that it normally happens in early to mid February. What wa the reasoning for setting 'our' calendar to turn over on a date when nothing seemed to happen, as opposed to the Solstice, or the March Equinox... when stuff begins to come alive again in the North?

[mickal555]

Maybe we did... but we fiddled with the calender so much that it's "off".

[01101001]

The magic search keyword is 'history'.

According to Infoplease.com: A History of the New Year

Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings in the New Year
Lunar calendar. 10 months.

January Joins the Calendar
January and February added.

Julian Calendar: January 1st Officially Instituted as the New Year
Julius Caesar institutes a solar calendar and starts the year in January.

Middle Ages: January 1st Abolished
New year moved around: Christmas, March 1, March 25, Feast of Annunciation, Easter.

Gregorian Calendar: January 1st Restored
New Year set again at January 1

[Blob]

Hum,
The Celtic new year began on November 1st, with the festival of Samhain.

[Gillianren]

Hum,
The Celtic new year began on November 1st, with the festival of Samhain.

Depends on whom you ask; many of my sources also say that it started on Beltane--1 May. (Most people I know also celebrate Samhain on 31 October, given that it's where Halloween comes from.)

[grant hutchison]

(Most people I know also celebrate Samhain on 31 October, given that it's where Halloween comes from.)

Well, Samhain itself was fixed to the first of the month, like the other big Celtic festivals: Beltane, Imbolc and Lughnasa.
the evening of October 31 was oidhche Shamhna, or "Samhain Eve", and was considered to be a time when witches were active.

Beltane and Samhain were both seen as big turning points in the year: the transition points between light and dark, warm and cold. Hence, I think, the confusion about which one started the Celtic year: each started a half-year.

Grant Hutchison

[Eroica]

Depends on whom you ask; many of my sources also say that it started on Beltane--1 May. (Most people I know also celebrate Samhain on 31 October, given that it's where Halloween comes from.)

I've always been taught that the Druidic New Year's Day was Samhain - a time when the end becomes the beginning and the natural order of the world is temporarily turned upside down.

The Druids, like the Jews, regarded sunset as the end of one day and the beginning of the next. That's why there is confusion between 31st October and 1st November. Samhain begins at sunset on 31st October and ends at sunset on 1st November.

[sophia8]

Both Beltane and Samhain were originally European agricultural festivals. April/early May was the time for the cattle to be taken out of their winter quarters and put out onto the pastures for the summer - that involved the herders going with them to protect them. Come autumn, they and the cattle came back down from the hills; after that, the breeding animals were selected, with the rest being slaughtered and the meat salted away for the winter. As the whole community was required to help with all these activies, both occasions merited a big party.
In pre-christian times, there wasn't much observance of an organised calender - that was left to the civil rulers and the priestly classes. The rest of the population usually went by a Lunar calender, with festivals arranged for Full Moon times (makes sense, if you think about it). So Beltane/Samhain were movable feasts, just like Jewish, Chinese & Muslim festivals. Fixing them on the 31st/1st of the month is a fairly modern development.
The British historian Ronald Hutton has written an excellent book, Stations of the Sun, on how these festivals developed into the modern holidays of today.

[Gillianren]

I've always been taught that the Druidic New Year's Day was Samhain - a time when the end becomes the beginning and the natural order of the world is temporarily turned upside down.

The Druids, like the Jews, regarded sunset as the end of one day and the beginning of the next. That's why there is confusion between 31st October and 1st November. Samhain begins at sunset on 31st October and ends at sunset on 1st November.

What I have discovered during my research into early Paganism is that, if you have two sources, you will get at least two versions of events. I, personally, go with Samhain, but I do know people who celebrate at Beltane.