Why is the new year now?

[Bedlam]

Something that I started thinking about is why does the western world have the new year now?

You could have your year starting at any point and either the winter of summer solstice would seem to make the most sense as it a clear point in the year that has a physical property i.e. longest/shortest, day/night. December the 31st has nothing special about it as far as I know. Was it set due to something once happening on that date? Did it used to be the winter Solstice and it slipped?

Likewise the chinese new year doesn't seem to be a special day physically how was that set?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

The calendar has undergone a lot of revision over the past few thousand years, and until the Gregorian updates there was a lot of inaccuracy. The new year is more-or-less the winter solstice.

[Jaepheth]

The year used in dates during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was the consular year, which began on the day when consuls first entered office—probably 1 May before 222 BC, 15 March from 222 BC and 1 January from 153 BC.[33] The Julian calendar, which began in 45 BC, continued to use 1 January as the first day of the new year. Even though the year used for dates changed, the civil year always displayed its months in the order January through December from the Roman Republican period until the present...

...many Western European countries moved the start of the year to one of several important Christian festivals—25 December (the Nativity of Jesus), 25 March (Annunciation), or Easter (France),[24] while the Byzantine Empire began its year on 1 September and Russia did so on 1 March until 1492 when the year was moved to 1 September...
...In common usage, 1 January was regarded as New Year's Day and celebrated as such,[35] but from the 12th century until 1751 the legal year in England began on 25 March...
...Most Western European countries changed the start of the year to 1 January before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. ...

So it's not 31st of December that matters so much as January 1st was the day that Roman consuls took office.
And common usage eventually won out as defining it as the first of the year.

[slebetman]

Christianity basically. To align the calendar so that the beginning of the year is closest to Christmas.

The original calendar started the year in March which coincides with the equinox. The remnants of this still lingers on our calendar with October, meaning eight, being the eighth month after March and December, meaning ten, being the tenth month after March. The names October and December doesn't make sense if you start the year in January.

edit:

I just realized - September means the seventh month and November means the ninth month!

[LadyTevar]

Christianity basically. To align the calendar so that the beginning of the year is closest to Christmas.

The original calendar started the year in March which coincides with the equinox. The remnants of this still lingers on our calendar with October, meaning eight, being the eighth month after March and December, meaning ten, being the tenth month after March. The names October and December doesn't make sense if you start the year in January.

edit:

I just realized - September means the seventh month and November means the ninth month!

Actually the reason I heard was because the Romans created the month of July to honor Julius Caesar, and then Caesar Augustus wanted equal billing. Thus, August. A few days were stolen from February in order to make July & August 31 days.

[slebetman]

Actually the reason I heard was because the Romans created the month of July to honor Julius Caesar, and then Caesar Augustus wanted equal billing. Thus, August. A few days were stolen from February in order to make July & August 31 days.

I thought they just changed the name of of the fifth month to July in honor of Caesar (Quintember?). The 12 month system has always been there because it follows the approximately 12 full moons (or new moon) you get each year. Hence the name "month" for months.

Still, the renaming of July doesn't explain why the new year is in January instead of March.

Speaking of Caesar, the phrase "Beware the ides of March" makes a bit more sense when you realize it's the beginning of a new year.

[Soontir C'boath]

Looking up definition of ide, it means the middle of the month. 15th in March, May, July, and October and the 13th day for other months. Ceaser was assassinated on the ide of March so it doesn't look like it has anything to do with a new year.

Dictionary.com

[LaCroix]

Actually the reason I heard was because the Romans created the month of July to honor Julius Caesar, and then Caesar Augustus wanted equal billing. Thus, August. A few days were stolen from February in order to make July & August 31 days.

I thought they just changed the name of of the fifth month to July in honor of Caesar (Quintember?). The 12 month system has always been there because it follows the approximately 12 full moons (or new moon) you get each year. Hence the name "month" for months.

Still, the renaming of July doesn't explain why the new year is in January instead of March.

Speaking of Caesar, the phrase "Beware the ides of March" makes a bit more sense when you realize it's the beginning of a new year.

For your information...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar

The first day of the consular term changed several times during Roman history. It became 1 January in 153 BC. Before then it was 15 March.

Also, the romans started off with a 10 months calendar, withch didn't assign 60 days, then an 12 month calendar with missing days and leap months. Dating stuff by their dates was quite a chore for historians, I believe.

[Thanas]

Still is.

[Flagg]

Still is.

Wasn't it so fucked up that you'd regularly have winters in the middle of July sometimes?

[Eframepilot]

Still is.

Wasn't it so fucked up that you'd regularly have winters in the middle of July sometimes?

No, July wasn't created until Julius Caesar's calendar reform which mostly stabilized the calendar until the Gregorian Reformation a millenium and a half later, which only had to correct a week and a half of slippage.

[Phantasee]

Jesus what is this, the dark ages? We have Google, people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August

This month was originally named Sextilis in Latin, because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar under Romulus in 753 BC, when March was the first month of the year. About 700 BC it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius, who also gave it 29 days. Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC giving it its modern length of 31 days. In 8 BC it was renamed in honor of Augustus (despite common belief, he did not take a day from February; see the debunked theory on month lengths). According to a Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, he chose this month because it was the time of several of his great triumphs, including the conquest of Egypt.[2]

And Augustus himself renamed Quintilis to Julius in honour of Julius Caesar.

[Crown]

Still is.

Christ, didn't the Roman's used to take the piss out of the Greek dating system; if memory serves the phrase 'on the first day of the Greek calendar' was a common piss-take phrase in Rome?

So I guess I'm asking how more fucked up was the Greek 'system' than the Roman one, or was it so bad because all the city states just did what they wanted?

[madd0ct0r]

Still is.

Surely that's something that could be turned into a computer program quite easily?