BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy When Does the New Year Begin *new article*

Imagine midnight on December 31 – fireworks, friendship and celebration greet a new year. But only if you follow the Gregorian calendar. In the past, a year often didn't start on January 1, and for nearly two billion people it still doesn't. So when does a new year begin?

When Does the New Year Begin

Dragon dances are a colorful feature of Chinese New Year celebrations. On the Chinese calendar the new year will begin on February 16th on the Gregorian calendar.

Scotland has only comparatively recently taken to Christmas, but the New Year - Hogmanay - has long been celebrated. Here is a torchlight parade in Edinburgh, part of the massive Hogmanay street party on December 31/January 1.

And look at these fireworks over Durnoch castle in the far north of Scotland.

If you were one of the Celts of Britain, your day would begin at sunset. (That's still true of, for example, the Jewish calendar.) Your year would be divided into the dark half and a light half. The year began at what the Welsh called Calan Gaeaf and the Irish called Samhain. This was around Halloween on the Gregorian calendar, and the start of the dark half of the year.

Six months later was Calan Haf (Bealtaine), on what's now the first of May, the beginning of the light half of the year.