Why is it that the seasons do not align with the beginning/end of the calendar year? For instance, winter in the northern hemisphere (summer in the southern hemisphere) runs from the beginning of December to the end of February. Why is this? I would have thought that when people were inventing calendars way back in the distant past that they would have aligned the beginning of the year with the changing of the seasons or maybe one of the solstices or equinoxes. But it seems like the change of seasons and solstices/equinoxes occur at kind of arbitrary times..
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There’s interesting history behind that! It significantly pre-dates the Gregorian calendar and dates back to the ancient Romans (and actually, part of it to before that).
>The Roman Empire set their *religious* new year on the Ides (15th) of March which is close to the Vernal Equinox
but
>The year used in dates during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was the *consular* year, which began on the day when consuls first entered office—[…] 1 January from AUC 601 (153 BC). The Julian calendar, which began in AUC 709 (45 BC), continued to use 1 January as the first day of the new year. [as did the Gregorian calendar afterward]
In other words, it was totally a political thing. Ancient politics from BC times. The day the new politicians took office.
But it varied in different times and places:
>During the Middle Ages, under the influence of the Catholic Church, many Western European countries moved the start of the year to one of several important Christian festivals—25 December (supposed Nativity of Jesus), 25 March (Annunciation), or Easter (France), while the Byzantine Empire began its year on 1 September and Russia did so on 1 March until 1492 when the new year was moved to 1 September.
So as you can see from the history, sometimes people in different places at different times *did* want it in the spring (and in some cases in the fall).
And notably, from the 12th century up until the 1750s, in Britain and the British colonies, it *kind of* started in the spring.
>In common usage, 1 January was regarded as New Year’s Day and celebrated as such, but from the 12th century until 1751 the legal year in England began on 25 March (Lady Day)
Kinda seems like the flip-side of the Romans, doesn’t it?
So that answers why January 1st, in the middle of winter, instead of say the spring eqinox, and shows that since ancient times, both have actually been considered the start of a new year at times. But still, why put January 1 *almost* in the middle of winter?
Think of a clock – an analog clock, a cycle of time. The new date starts at midnight, the time when we’re about midway between shifting away from evening and start shifting towards morning (idealized, since that varies depending on season and latitude). Similarly, mid-winter is when we’re midway between shifting away from fall and start shifting towards spring.
Ok, that makes sense, but why not the winter solstice? Simple answer – Saturnalia and other festivals. Midwinter festivals are an ancient practice predating even Rome. And they could get pretty raucous and last awhile. The Romans didn’t want to have to start a new legal year and have people take office right during the middle of all that, so they shifted a week or so to give people time to sober up and get home.
So the main reason it’s January 1st instead of the winter solstice is that people were a little too busy with drunken debauchery to start all the official stuff of a new year right at that moment.
And that is why programmers hate dealing with dates and times and such. None of it is really logical or rational, it’s all politics and religion and custom, and that changes frequently. But oddly, starting the date at midnight and starting the new year on January 1st have (mostly) held up since ancient times (with some exceptions).
– More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Beginning_of_the_year
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