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The New Year holiday is one of the oldest and most celebrated around the world.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the earliest record of a New Year's celebration dates back to 2000 BC in Mesopotamia, where in Babylonia the new year (Akitu) began with the new moon after the vernal equinox and in Assyria with the new moon cloud closer to the autumnal equinox (mid-September).
For the Egyptians and Phoenicians, the year began at the autumnal equinox (September 21), for the ancient Persians it began at the vernal equinox (March 21), and for the ancient Greeks it began at the winter solstice (December 21).
In the calendar of the Roman Republic the year began on March 1, but after 153 BC the official date was January 1, which continued in the Julian calendar of 46 BC. Christ.
In the Early Middle Ages, most of Christian Europe considered March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year, although New Year's Day was celebrated on December 25 in Anglo-Saxon England.
William the Conqueror decreed that the year begin on January 1, but England later joined the rest of Christendom and adopted March 25. The Gregorian calendar, adopted in 1582 by the Roman Catholic Church, restored January 1 as New Year's Day, and most European countries gradually followed suit: Scotland, in 1660; Germany and Denmark, about 1700; England, in 1752; and Russia, in 1918.
Those religions and cultures that use a lunar calendar have continued to observe the beginning of the year on days other than January 1. In the Jewish religious calendar, for example, the year begins on Rosh Hashana, the first day of the month of Tishri, which falls between September 6 and October 5. The Muslim calendar normally has 354 days in each year, with the new year beginning with the month of Muharram. Nowruz, an ancient Zoroastrian festival, is celebrated as a cultural new year in Iran and other parts of the Middle East and Central Asia with Persian influences.
Chinese New Year is celebrated starting in late January or early February. Other Asian cultures celebrate this day at different times of the year. In southern India, people of Kerala celebrate the new year as Vishu and people in neighboring Tamil Nadu as Puthandu on 14 April. Tibetans celebrate the day as Losar in February; and in Thailand the holiday, called Songkran, is celebrated in mid-April. In Japan, the Shōgatsu New Year holiday is a three-day holiday, from January 1 to 3.
The first guest to cross the threshold, or "first foot," is significant and can bring good luck if the person is right. The traditions of "first legs" are observed in Mediterranean countries, but also in Scotland and parts of northern England./Encyclopedia Britannica
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