A year comes to its end when the Earth completes a revolution (365 days). That is, every New Year's Eve marks the beginning of next revolution of Earth.
So, what would be the relative distance between Sun & Earth on New Year Day (Jan 1) every year? What position of Earth is considered as the starting point of Earth's revolution?
Answer with detailed scientific explanations. Remember, English Calendar was formed on basis of revolution theory & they must have got a solid reason to make Jan 1 the New year Day.
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Answers
Why Jan 1st is New Year's Day
Gregorian New Year’s day, 1st
January is an ancient custom established by the Romans. It was established
centuries ago. The Roman god Janus had two faces one forward and one behind.
The forward face is pointing to the next year. The hind face pointing towards
the past year. January month was named after him and was chosen to be the
beginning of the Roman and later Gregorian calendar.
January 1st was chosen in around 153 BC as New Year’s day by Romans. When Julian calendar began in 45 BC they continued it. The beginning of New Year was altered in some centuries in some countries. It was altered to the day when the Consul or head of state assumed charge. In England for five centuries from 12th century CE Legal Year began on 25 March. Many countries followed Jan 1st as New Year’s day when they adopted Gregorian calendar. Some countries changed their calendars to start New Year on Jan 1st during 17th and 18 centuries.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day falls on 21st or 22nd December every year. So January indicates beginning of warmer days. It has effect on agriculture, weather and more pleasant life style. Perhaps that is another reason to choose January to be the beginning of the year.
Earth is at its perihelion position, closest to Sun, in its orbit on 21st Dec. Northern Hemisphere is further away from Sun than Southern Hemisphere. Reason is Earth’s tilt of 23 deg to the plane of its orbit around Sun. So it is winter in Northern Hemisphere.
New Year's Day and Celestial Bodies
There is no relation between seasons, planetary positions and beginning of the year.
New Year’s STAR SIRIUS:
Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. Sirius starts on the horizon at Sunset on Dec 31st, and rises to the highest position (above head) at midnight on the stroke of New Year. This happens every year. Sirius is called the Star of the New Year. Sirius shines sparklingly white and bright. Sirius can be located easily with the help of three Belt stars, part of constellation Orion.
HINDU CALENDAR:
However, in Hindu calendar it is different. The calendar is based on Lunar and Solar positions in the sky with respect to Earth. 27 chosen Stars are divided into 12 raasis or groups (constellations) of 30 deg each. Months are named according to Lunar positions wrt the stars. The prominent star on the full moon day of the month gave its name to that month.
But the choice of New Year’s day in Hindu calendars (Ugadi) is on the basis of weather. They chose spring and Sunny days during March/April as the beginning of their year. Those days were pleasant to the people (region) who wrote the Hindu calendars. But, there is no celestial event occurring on the Hindu New year’s day either.
The present calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar when he noticed that the festivals and seasons didn't fall accordingly to the Lunar cycles i.e the dates changed every time. Sosigenes, Caesar's astronomer proposed to follow the solar year which was based on Earth's revolution around the Sun. To keep the calendar from further fall outs Caesar added one day once in 4 years as from the calculation the year's length had came out to be 365 and a 1/4 days.
>Mistakes in Julian calendar -
After Julius passed away, people stopped following the Julian calendar. The reason behind this was an error in rounding up the value of days in a year. In the year 1000, there was already an error of 7 days and by the 1400s the error came out to be of 10 days.
>Modification in Julian calendar -
In late 1500s, Pope Gregory XIII worried about the time lag error sent for Clavius, an astronomer . Clavius came up with a solution for this. After every 4 years there should be leap year if it is divisible by 100 as well as 400. For example - while 1600 is a leap year, 1900 is not a leap year as it is not divisible by 400. This correction led to people adapting to the modified Julian calendar that is called Gregorian calendar now.
>But why choose January 1 as first day of a New Year?
The month name 'January' is derived from Roman (appears in Greek too) God of Doorways Janus who has two heads ,one looking back into past and another looking forward to future. Naturally January was taken as a good month as the God Janus divided the past and the future.
Another reason is after Winter Solstice in the month of December (North), the days start becoming longer . People especially farmers took this as a good sign to begin their agriculture since the days became longer.
>Position of Earth -
The Earth during this time is the closest to the Sun, we can take this as a logic to explain why this part of year is immortalized as the beginning of a New Year.
At last, I can only say that due to growing popularity of using Gregorian calendar in some significant parts of world, January 1 became internationally accepted as the beginning of New Year. Little do people know that this selection is based on ancient belief and culture on God Janus and the Good luck time for people back in the middle ages :)
Hope This Helps You!