INDEPTH: NEW YEAR'S DAY
New Year's Days in 2004
CBC News Online | December 31, 2003
January 1 is New Year's Day on the Gregorian calendar, the world's most widely celebrated holiday. But although this calendar is used around the world in civic and commercial life, many other calendars are used for local and religious observances and they all start at different times of the year.
Other New Year's Days in 2004
Jan. 14 - In the Julian calendar, still followed by some Eastern Orthodox churches, the Roman Era year of 2756 begins on this day.
Jan. 22 - The first day of 4701 in the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Monkey. This is also New Year's Day in the Koreas (Sol-Nal) and in Vietnam (Tet).
Feb. 22 - At sundown on this day, the year 1425 of the Islamic calendar beings. Because the Islamic, or Hijri, calendar is a lunar calendar with only 354 days, Muslim observances cycle through the year on the Gregorian calendar every 34 years. The first day of the Hijri year 1410 was Aug. 3, 1989, on the Gregorian calendar.
March 21 - The day following the new moon after the spring equinox is the first day of the year 2061 in the Hindu calendar, also called Bikrami Samvat. This is also the first day of the year 1383 in the Persian calendar and the year 1374 in the Zoroastrian calendar.
March 22 - The first day of the year 1926 of the Saka era in the reformed calendar of India. India adopted an official calendar for civil use in 1957 to try to bring the whole country under the same calendar. Various Sikh and other traditional calendars celebrate the new year at different times of the year.
March 25 - Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1751, much later than the rest of Europe. Before that year, people in Great Britain and its colonies in the New World celebrated New Year's Day, or Lady Day, on March 25.
April 1 - After France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, some people either ignored or didn't find out about the switch of New Years Day from April 1 to Jan. 1. Those who continued to celebrate the old New Year were called April Fools.
April 14 - This is the first day of the solar year, determined by the passage of the sun from Pisces to Aries, celebrated in some cultures in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other parts of southeast Asia.
June 21 - The summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere was the marking of the new year on some ancient Greek calendars. It's also the winter solstice and the first day of the year 5012 on the calendar of Bolivia's Aymara natives.
Sept. 11 - The first day of the year 1997 in Ethiopia, where the calendar consists of 12 months of 30 days each and one month of five or six days.
Sept. 15 - Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on this day and marks the first day of the year 5765 in the Jewish calendar. It's a curiosity of the Jewish calendar that the first day of the year actually occurs in the seventh month of the year, Tishri. The first month, Nisan, occurs six or seven months after the start of the calendar year. Rosh Hashanah is a high Jewish holiday and is celebrated as a day of remembrance.
Oct. 31 - Samhain, or "summer's end," is the first day of the Celtic year, marked by some followers of the Wiccan faith.
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