Welcome, 2025: That’s why January 1st is celebrated as New Year’s Day | World News

Several countries around the world have already reached the year 2025, while in other countries January 1, the first day of the year, begins the moment the clock strikes midnight in the local time zone.

But why does the new year start on January 1st?

Britannica States that the Roman Emperor Numa Pompilius, during his reign (c. 715-673 BC), revised the Roman Republican calendar to make January instead of March the first month of the year. While January took its name from Janus, the Roman god of all beginnings, March was named after Mars, the god of war.

According to the website, some sources also credit Numa with the creation of January.

In 46 B.C. In 400 BC, Julius Caesar, then King of Rome, made further changes to the calendar, but kept January 1st as the first day of the year. As the Roman Empire expanded, so did the calendar, which also became known as the Julian calendar. However, after the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD, several Christian countries changed the calendar to more closely fit their religion, resulting in March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation) and December 25 (Christmas ) became common New Year’s Days.

Then, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII brought a revised calendar. The reason for this was that the Julian year required additional changes due to a miscalculation of leap years, which resulted in various events occurring in the wrong season.

The Gregorian calendar, which established January 1 as New Year’s Day, was immediately adopted by Italy, France, Spain and several other nations. Britain and its American colonies did not follow the Gregorian calendar until 1753; there March 25th was New Year’s Day.

Over time, non-Christian states also followed the Gregorian calendar.