Throughout history, great civilizations have had different opinions as to when the new year should begin. Ancient Mesopotamians who lived in Babylonia celebrated the new year on the new moon nearest the spring equinox (mid-March,) but those Mesopotamians who lived in Assyriaset the full moon nearest the autumn equinox (mid-September) as their new year's beginning. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians also celebrated at the autumn equinox. Until the fifth century B.C. E., the Greeks celebrated the old year's passing during the winter solstice (around December twenty-first.)

The Romans set the date for a new year's start at March first during the festival of Calends. When Emperor Julius Caesar changed the Roman calendar in 46 B.C.E, the official date for the first day of the new year was January first. During the festival, known as Saturnalia, Romans decorated their houses, exchanged gifts, and allowed slaves and servants to behave as equals.

During much of the Middle Ages, most of Christian Europe viewed March twenty-fifth, Annunciation Day (the day the Virgin Mary was impregnated by Immaculate Conception), as the first day of the new year. However, the Anglo-Saxons ignored that tradition and chose to celebrate on December twenty-fifth.

In 1582, when the Gregorian calendar listed the official date once more as January first, Roman Catholic countries immediately adopted the new holiday, but Scotland didn't accept it until 1660. Germany and Denmark didn't come on board until around 1700. England held out until 1752 and Sweden dragged its heels until 1773. The western world had to wait until 1918 for Russia to fall into line.

Along with other pagan practices, the custom of giving gifts to monarchs at the new year was outlawed by the Catholic church in A.D. 567, but was later reinstated by English rulers sometime during the thirteenth century. Common gifts were gold and jewels. English husbands also gifted their wives with money on New Year's Day.

The Feast of Fools was one of the more notorious festivals celebrated on or around January first. Begun in the twelfth century by John Beleth, an English liturgical writer, the festival, set on the Day of Circumcision, was supposed to be a 'festival of the sub-deacons', similar in spirit to other feasts held in honor of deacons, priests, choristers and mass servers.

The feast carried overtones of Saturnalia, raising those in subordinate positions to a higher station if only for a few hours. Thus, in the hands of a sub-deacon, the formality and solemnity the church services became a parody, bordering on blasphemy in the eyes of Rome.

The Feast of Fools grew to be so licentious and blasphemous in nature that it was constantly and emphatically condemned by the medieval church. In 1199, Bishop Eudes de Sully imposed regulations to try to curb the abuses of the celebration at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The celebration was finally forbidden under the severest penalties by the Council of Basle in 1435. This condemnation was seconded by the University of Paris in 1444 and supported by the decrees of various local councils.

Under the church's pressure, the more blatant abuses committed during New Year's festivities like the Feast of Fools slowly died away. However, these customs were so deeply rooted in European tradition that it took two more centuries for the church to eradicate them completely.

Learn more about this author, Lucy E. Zahnle.
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