THE NEW YEAR

Some might ask, "Why, as Americans, do we celebrate the beginning of the New Year on January first?" When you stop and think about it, there is no significant event in the Sun, Moon, or Stars to mark the day. The Winter Solstice occurs on December twenty-second, and beginning the year then might make some sense. However, that day marks the beginning of Winter, and that seems to me to be a depressing way to start a new year. Spring would be a much better beginning; it is the time we observe trees producing new growth, flowers blooming, and migrating birds returning. Spring is a very positive season. If I were making a calendar, I would start the year on March twentieth, the first of the year's two equinoxes.

Believe it or not, the order of months in the Roman calendar has been January to December since the reign of King Numa Pompiliusin about 700 BC, according to Plutarch and Macrobius. I could find no information on why he chose January first for the beginning of the New Year. Who knows, maybe it was his birthday. But for whatever reason, most of the world has been stuck with it for twenty-seven centuries.

The Jews, on the other hand, have an even more confusing calendar. A month on the Jewish calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon. The "first month" of the Jewish calendar is the month of Nissan, our March/April (hey, maybe I am Jewish!), when the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits occur. However, the Jewish New Year is in their seventh month, the month of Tishri, when they celebrate the feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

Getting back to why we celebrate January first as New Years, believe it or not, it is possible that it is celebrated because of both the Roman and the Jewish calendars! According to Roman Catholic tradition, January first is the day of the circumcision of Jesus on the eighth day following His birth, when the name of Jesus was given to him (Lk. 2:21). Because January first is the eighth day following His birth, that would make sense, except for a couple of factors: 1) The Romans made their calendar about seven hundred years before Christ's birth, and 2) The Jews certainly would not celebrate the circumcision of the Messiah they rejected.

So, the bottom line is, I have no idea. All I do know is that it makes a great day to "start over" when it comes to living for Christ! I like what the Apostle Paul said, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14)!

Happy New Year; live it for Christ!