....and that's a completely arbitrarty statement on the part of our civilization. What does it have to do with natural reality? Not much! Accordingly, I've never seen any reason to take our conventions about "New Years" seriously. It's just another odd thing that people made up, as far as I'm concerned, and after they made it up they all followed it automatically to this day without thinking, which is typical of human beings, isn't it?

Gregorian Calendar

We presently use the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted by a papal bull in 1582, at which time it was accepted by a few Christian countries in western Europe. Other countries in Christendom gradually adopted it as well, but some countries such as Russia did not accept it until the early 20th century. So they had New Years on a different date and followed a different calendar. Non-Christian civilizations had a variety of other calendars and ideas about when the New Year occurs.

What we are doing when we celebrate (or don't celebrate, as in my case) "New Years" is....we are following the dictates of a Pope Gregory in the year 1582! Isn't that a bit silly? ;-) I think so.

The thing that determines our actual year is the relationship of the planet Earth to the Sun, its movements around the Sun, and Pope Gregory was, of course, aware of that when he decided to ratify the present calendar, but why make the year begin on January 1st? What does that date really have to do with the beginning of our year? I don't think it has anything to do with it.

If you are going to assign a particular day as the beginning of an Earth year, then it should be the day that ties in directly with a significant crossing in regards to the Sun.

It should, I think, be either the day following the longest night (the Solstice).....or it should be at the time of the Vernal Equinox (March 21). Those are the great crossings that should rightly coincide with the end of one solar year on Earth and the beginning of the next one.

The crossing that makes the most sense to have as the beginning of a New Year is March 21, the Vernal Equinox. That is when Spring begins, and in Nature, a new year really begins when Spring comes, and everything in Nature is in tune with that. For plants, animals, people, and every living thing, a new year really begins when winter ends and spring brings new life forth....but that is different in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.

So rightly speaking, lands north of the equator have their natural new year begin on March 21, the Vernal Equinox, and lands south of the equator have their natural new year begin on Sept 21, the Autumnal Equinox, because that's when their spring begins in the southern hemisphere.

If our ideas about the new year were connected to the equinoxes, it would make sense. It would even make sense of some kind if we connected new years to the Solstices. But it makes no sense at all to connect New Years to January 1st, in my opinion. It's an arbitrary covention thought up by some religious authorities over 400 years ago, and that's all it is.


I've never been able to relate to the big fuss people make at mignight on Dec 31st, I think it's downright silly, it's got nothing to do with any natural event, therefore it's meaningless, and I usually totally ignore it, just like I did last night. ;-) I stayed home, had a quiet evening, read a book for a bit, then went to bed early, and ignored the entire thing, but I did hear the faint, distant sound of firecrackers going off at midnight, so the usual people were out there doing their robotic cultural thing at midnight like they always do.

One more thought here. A day does not end at midnight. That's another nonsensical arbitary notion that someone dreamed up, and billions of people have been following it since....but in societies that were more directly in tune with Nature, as the Amerindians and many other people on the Earth once were, a day ends at sunset. And the new day begins at sunrise. And that makes sense!

If you are going to have a year end, it should end at sunset of the last day of the year. You then sleep. And the new year begins the next day at sunrise when you wake up and when the beauty of the Sun shines brightly across the land at the start of a new day and a new year. People who lived properly in harmony with Nature understood that and they honored it. The present society doesn't understand that, it has separated itself from Nature, it has lost touch with Nature under a flood of artificial devices and artificial ideas, and it now thinks that a day ends at midnight. ;-D Absurd!

As you may know, I'm a conscientious objector to the cultural status quo I live in...to this entire silly civilization I got born into...and that's my bit of unconventionality about New Years for you all to chew on this January 1st. So chew away! ;-) I'm sure you will have things to say about it.