New Year’s wasn't always celebrated on Jan. 1. About 4,000 years ago, during the Babylonian time period people celebrated Akitu, a festival during the spring and fall equinox. The spring equinox represented the start of a new year.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar synced to the sun, officially moving New Year's celebration from March 1 to Jan. 1. In order to relate the Roman calendar with the sun, Julius Caesar had to add 90 extra days to the year 46 BC. He made Jan. 1 the first day of the year, partly to honor the month's namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, who had two whole faces which allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future.
Today, some countries and cultures use a lunar calendar and hold their New Year's Day at different times of the year. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the first day of Muharram, the Muslim New Year, are both celebrated in the fall. The Chinese New Year lasts for a whole month and normally starts in late January or early February.
During New Year's countries also have different traditions. In Spain people eat 12 grapes in the seconds leading up to New Year’s. In Greece, Mexico, the Netherlands and other places people east ring-shaped pastries, a sign that the year has gone full circle. In some cultures pigs represent prosperity and progress and pork appears on the tables in Cuba, Hungary and Portugal. In China a dumpling represents hope for a successful New Year. In Japan long buck weed noodles represent a long life.
Since 1904, crowds have packed Times Square in New York as a New Year's tradition. Around one billion people around the world watch each year as a brightly lit ball descends down a pole. This was started by “The New York Times” relocated to what was then called Longacre Square. They convinced the city to rename the neighborhood in its honor. They celebrated this and the New Year with fireworks. In 1907, the city banned fireworks; an electrician created a wood-and-iron ball that weighed 700 pounds, with 100 light bulbs. Today, it weighs nearly 12,000 pounds and continues to get upgraded year after year. This is also a televised event and an American tradition on New Year’s.
Paul Revere, J. Edgar Hoover, Lorenzo de Medici, Betsy Ross and Pope Alexander XI were born on Jan. 1. Legends say babies born on the first of the year grow up to enjoy the luckiest of lives, bringing joy and good fortune to the those around them.
