History of Holidays : New Year's

The celebration and creation of new year's was first celebrated in Ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago. In fact, new years is the oldest celebration out of all the celebrated holidays. Originally, new years was celebrated in March 9since march was the month that marked the beginning of spring and rebirth of nature, rebirth marking a new year) by people for 11 days, most commonly in temples. There, priests would make sacrificial offerings in hopes for a new year filled with good health, good luck, and good fortune.

It wasn’t until Julius Caesar made created the Julius Calendar that new years was celebrated in January, due to the adjustments it made. Once the construction of the Julius Calendar was made, Roman Senate made January 1^st the official date of which new year's was to be held in 153 B.C.

Romans celebrated new year's with festive such as “toga parties”. The custom of making loud noise at midnight came from these Roman parties. The ancient Romans would play loud music, sing loudly, cheer loudly, clap loudly, everything had to be loud. This was because it was there way of bringing good luck to the new year. They believed that by creating a lot of loud noise around midnight, it would ward off all evil spirits and negative energy. To them, that was a good way to welcome the new year. That tradition has still stuck to this day. The loud music being played, the cheering at time square when the ball drops, and the loud countdown to midnight with noise makers and horns were brought to us by the Romans, even though the purpose behind it may have changed a little bit, it’s still a celebration none-the-less.