THE NEW YEAR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 January 1929, Page 9

THE NEW YEAR

ULBMEN T ARY geography books " usually announce on the first page or laa-o that one year is the length of time Avhich the earth takes to revolve round the sun and that it consists of 3GSJ days, which is good enough as far as it*goes. But Avhy our year begins on January 1 is not explained, there being as a’matter of fact no very valid reason Avhy it should. But seeing that for many millions of the earth’s inhabitant’s the year does begin on the first, day of January, although for many other millions it does not, it is interesting to see lioav the choice of this date "came about and hoAV our present calender took shape. In early times, Avhen agriculture engaged the attention of nomadic tribes, the : apparent" movements of the sun and moon were obviously a good means of fixing ’the passage of time, but. a year, Avliich seems to us such a definite thing, was to the ancients very vague and intangible. The Chinese, no doubt several thousand years 8.C., had a definite year in their calendar, but in their splendid isolation this had no influence on Europe at all. So Ave find that Xenophon, the ancient 'Greek historian, refers to an event taking place in the A-ear “Avhen Eubotas of Gyrene Avon the footrace at the Olympic Games,” just as avc Avould say, if avc happen to be folloAvers of the sport of kings, “Oh, ves, that Avas the year in which Jeddah Avon the Derby.” The Romans adopted a chronology, numbering their A-ears from the date of tho “founding of the city,” this system being subsequently superseded by the Christian method of numbering years from the date of the birth of Christ. In the past there AA r as much trouble Avith the year, the difficulty being in making the solar and civil years agree. This is not easy, as the solar year, the time that the earth takes to complete one journey round the sun, is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds, a most aAA'kward number to divide up. The civil year employed in chronology, although varying amongst different nations in the season at which it begins

CALENDAR PROBLEMS

HOW DATE WAS FIXED

and in its subdivision, is based on the solar year, the civil calendar of all European countries being borroAved from that of the Romans. This year, however, began in March and. Avas not very accurate. At one time discretionary poAvers Avcre gtocn to .the pontiffs to add or to substract days to make tho civil and solar years agree. This led] t"j much confusion, the pontiffs, abusing their power by prolonging a term of magistracy or hastening an election by adding or substracting davs to suit themselves. Then 'Caesar, of 55 B.'C. fame, came alon", Mussolini-like putting an end to such” doubtful practices. He inaugurated a year of fifiSj- days, keciug the four quarters to make an extra day in leap vear, the first Julian year as it •is - called" beginning in B.C. 46. The previous year, **the last year of confusion.” as it came to be called, consisted of 445 days, so fax out of time reckoning had the Romans got. The next calendar revision Avas that undertaken by Pope Gregory XIII., his reforms, “the new style,” spreading o-radually over Europe. Popular prejudice in England, hoAvever, prevented our forefathers from coming into line with the rest of Europe. But after 150 years of inconvenience from having a calendar varying from that of the Continent, England came into line, and in 1752 the Gregorian .calendar was adopted. This necessitated the dropping of eleven whole days in September" of that year, AA’hich Avas the cause •of much rioting and protestation on the part of those Avho objected to the loss of eleven days out of their lives. In 1752 the Gregorian calendar Avas its commencement finally fixed as January 1 instead of March 25. NeAv Year’s Day, from the first and second centuries until 1066, had begun cither on Christmas Day or else at the Spring Equinox ('March ’25). Eor a hundred years after that- January 1 had a spell as Ihe initial day of the year, March 25 being once more the fnvouWcl date from 1155 to 1752. Thereafter January 1 held the honour, and

is likely to continue to do so. iSeotland, however, adopted January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1600, and to them it is a much more important day than it is to the average Englishman. Non-'Christian races, of course, have their own ideas about years, and when they start,' the Jews starting theirs m t September, and dating them from the creation of the world. Mohammedans have their own system, dating their years from the flight of the Prophet to Mecca, and so on. But to the greater proportion of the civilised -world, to all (British people, January 1 'will mark the beginning of 1929, and wo in New Zealand, owing to our longitude and to the adoption of Summer Time, wore the nrst 1o welcome the New Year and to express to each other the fervent wish that-it may holdJiu store all that is good and prosperous.

There is no real reason why 1929 should begin sooner in one place than in another, or, for that matter, why any day should. But it must be considered to begin somewhere, and the line where the transition from one year to another —and from one day to another —occurs is a modification of the 180th merdian drawn to include islands of any one group on the same side of the line or for political purposes. Previous to the Dominion’s adoption of ‘Summer Time the Fijians used to tie the first to welcome any New Year, the 'Dominion following half an hour later. This time we shared the honour, although a year ago when we “saved” a full hour of daylight we beat Fiji by thirty minutes. Two hours after us Australia began its New Year, and the time wave sweeping round the world passed in succession through Japan, 'China, India, .Africa, and Europe, until 12 hours after Jtho Dominion has welcomed the birth 'of 1929 'Great Britain woke up to the fact that the old year was dead and that 1929 had dawned. But it was some six hours later still before America indulged in its New l T ear greetings, and the last on the list, 23i hours after New Zeaalnd celebrations, was Samoa.