From paganistic celebrations to religious solemnness

By Mehru Jaffer

New Year's was not always celebrated at the same time around the world. But as our planet shrinks and becomes more of a global village, the festivities at the end of each Julian year have spread out to even remote corners of the world.

It is now possible to wish each other a Happy New Year in over a hundred different languages. When the world was not so well- connected and time was divided differently into days, months and years, some people based their calendar on the movement of the moon, while others used both the sun and moon, with celebrations of a New Year held in different parts of the world at different times.

Ancient Egypt rejoiced when the Nile river flooded at the end of September, enriching the desert with silt needed to grow crops for the next year. In Babylonia, where modern day Iraq stands, the custom was to strip the king of his clothes and send him away for a few days at springtime so that everyone could do as they wished. When the king returned he was dressed in fine robes and a grand procession followed him. After the singing and dancing was over people went back to their daily life trying to do the right thing for a while.

The Greeks paraded a baby in a basket to represent the spirit of fertility; the Christians adopting the same symbol in the form of baby Jesus. In many parts of the world even today a baby is still the symbol for the new year, and an old man for the old year. The Americans play football, which replaces the Roman chariot races of ancient times, and people all around the globe make New Year resolutions, imitating the Babylonians, whose most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

All the confetti, dancing and singing is also a modern version of the colorful parades, athletic events and balls of ancient times where the best of the year's produce was put on display.

The Roman festival fell on March 1, that is until emperor Julius Caesar decided that he wanted a new calendar in 46 B.C. and moved the new year forward to January 1, a month named after the Roman god Janus with two heads. It is the same Julian calendar that is used to this day, with one head of Janus symbolizing the year past and the other looking forward to the year ahead.

The Romans called their festival Calends, decorating their homes and giving each other presents. Masters condescended to eat and drink together with the slaves, at least for that one time in the year, and people were allowed to make merry for a couple of days.

Yan Tan, the Chinese new year falls between Jan. 17 and Feb. 19 at the time of the full moon. Chinese all over the world celebrate as thousands of colorful lanterns are paraded at street processions and decorate homes to light up the way for the new year.

Called Tet Nguyen Dan or Tet for short in Vietnam, it is believed that every home is visited by a god between Jan. 21 and Feb. 19 who eventually returns on the back of a carp fish to the heavens to report how good or bad each family below is. Today many buy a live carp and let it loose in water again, also believing that the first person to enter their house at new year either brings good or bad luck.

The Japanese new year is the same as the one on the Julian calendar but it is celebrated with beliefs left over from their traditional religion.

To keep evil spirits at bay, a rope of straw hangs across the front of the house as a symbol of happiness and good luck. And once the clock strikes midnight the Japanese burst into loud, collective laughter, also in the hope of good luck in the future.

The ancient people of present day Britain and France called the festival Samhain (summer's end) gathering mistletoe to keep ghosts away that were believed to return to haunt the living in the dead of the cold and dark winter nights.

The Jewish call their new year Rosh Hashanah and use the occasion to think about all the wrong that they might have done in the past, making resolutions to do better in the future. Special services are held at synagogues and an instrument made from a ram's horn is played. Children get new clothes and new year loaves of bread are baked and fruit eaten to celebrate Spring.

The Muslim calendar based on the moon moves the new year forward by eleven days each year. In Iran the date is March 21 when people put grains of wheat and barley a few weeks ahead and celebrate its growth in memory of Spring. Even in one country like India, the new year is celebrated to this day in different parts, in a variety of ways. The people of West Bengal say it with flowers of every hue and color and women wear yellow to rejoice the end of winter.

In Kerala in southern India, mothers put food, flowers and gifts on a special tray, first blind folding and then leading them to it. In Gujarat, west India new year is always at the end of October to coincide with Deepawali, the festival of lights when the rooftop and gardens of all homes are lit up with little oil lamps in anticipation of the dark nights of the approaching winter months.

In the early years, the Catholic Church looked down upon new year festivities as paganism. However as Christianity spread, the church combined many of its own religious observances with pagan celebrations. Some still observe January one as the feast of Christ's Circumcision.

During the middle ages the church continued to frown upon the new festivities, and January one was declared a holiday by western nations only 400 years ago.

It is no coincidence that December is a month of many holidays, including Deepawali, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Chinese, and Vietnamese and western new year celebrations. For this is the time of the winter solstice when the earth and moon are closest to the sun and also a time, it is felt by many to rejoice in full moon rituals. This moment has always been very sacred to man's pagan ancestors when the moon is said to be 30 percent brighter than a normal full moon.

In mixed marriages very often children are fortunate to experience the different ways their parents belonging to different cultures celebrate the holiday month, making them grow up with the happy feeling that there exists more than one way of doing the same thing.