Rome, 46 or 45 BCE

The Roman emperor Julius Caesar established January 1st as New Year's Day as he introduced a new calendar that was far more accurate than the one Rome had been using up to that point. Caesar named January after the Roman god of doors and gates, Janus, who had two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward.

Rome, First January 1 New Year

Caesar celebrated the first New Year on January 1 by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee. Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.

Europe, early Middle Age

As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would conceive a son to be called Jesus.) This made sense, because it was near the vernal equinox, the New Year for many of the European tribes the Church sought to convert.

Vatican City, 1582

Pope Gregory XIII (AKA "Ugo Boncompagni", 1502-1585) abandoned the traditional Julian calendar.

The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian in three ways: (1) No century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 (e.g., 1600, 2000, etc.); (2) Years divisible by 4000 are common (not leap) years; and (3) once again the New Year would begin with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.

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