The

TRUTH About New Year

     Every January 1 many people cheerfully admonish one another “Happy New Year!” It is seen as a day of new beginnings. A page is turned, resolutions are made. Wild celebrations erupt all over the night before. And no one ever seems to wonder why. Why January 1 and not any other day? Why pick the dead of winter to begin the year? And what does it all really mean? So let’s look at The Truth About New Year and see what we find.

     The modern calendar which begins on January 1 was given to us by Rome. It has gone through a number of corrections throughout history. Pope Gregory XIII, and before him Augustus Caesar, and before him Julius Caesar, and before him King Numa, all made corrections to the calendar over the course of time. One change made was that the New Year would be recognized, as it is today, in January instead of in March as it originally was.

      “The Roman year began in March… In 153 BC, Roman consuls began taking office on January 1, which became the beginning of the year. This practice was retained in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, although other starting dates continued to be used. England and its colonies [including America], for example, used March 25 and the Julian reckoning until 1752”(Academic American Encyclopedia p.88).

     When we really think about it, January is a strange time to celebrate the New Year. Nothing is “new” then. It is the dead of winter in most regions that recognize it. The name “April” however, comes from Aprilis, which is Latin for “to open.”And the original recognition of the New Year “opening” up at this time is confirmed in the names of the months.

     As any decent dictionary will confirm the names for September, October, November, and December are all Latin for “seventh month,” “eighth Month,” “ninth month,” and “tenth month.” Looking at a modern calendar, however, we can see that they are two months late in the current scheme. Ask the average person what December is and he will surely respond that it is the twelfth month. (Tell him it actually means “tenth month” and watch his expression).

     July was originally called Qintillus for “fifth month,” until Julius Caesar’s name took it over (in honor of his birth ). Then Sextillus was taken by Augustus Caesar who also wanted his own month, which  ended up being called August. Of course he added a day to make it even with July, not to be outdone. Nevertheless, that July and August were originally called the “fifth month” and “sixth month” further confirms that January was not the New Year.

     This change is not without religious significance. January is named after Janus “an ancient Roman god of gates and doors and of beginnings and endings represented with two opposite faces” (Webster’s Student Dictionary). When we consider the modern day practices perpetuated on January 1, it becomes apparent that these customs commemorate Janus. The peoples’ ignorance does not change this fact.

     In regions of Europe, the New year is called “hogmanay” (Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary). This is actually a Semitic phrase signifying the “feast’ (Strong’s,Heb. 2282) of “the Apportioner, i.e. Fate (as an idol)” (Heb. 4507).This idol is mentioned in the Scriptures (Isaiah 65:11; rendered “that number” in the KJV). Though most are unaware, the modern observance of Janus is worship of an idol.

    “….In other words… to show the connection between country and country, and the inveterate endurance of old customs, it is worthy of remark that Jerome, commenting on [the verse just mentioned]...observes that it ‘was the custom so late as his time, in all cities…, to set tables, and furnish them with various luxurious articles of food, and with goblets containing a mixture of new wine, on the last day of the month  and year and the people drew omens...in respect of the fruitfulness of the year”[(Hieionym, vol 2, p.217)]” (Alexander Hislop, The two Babylons, p.94-96).

     By perpetuating the January New Year, not only are the people following an arbitrary time, but it is actually reverencing an idol. That is, it attributes the infinite to the finite. This is idolatry. And January is not really even a “month” anyway.

     In English, as in Hebrew and Greek, the word for “month” comes from the word for “moon.” This is why all months on the common calendar are about 30 days long. It takes approximately that long for the moon to complete its synodic cycle, i.e. a “moonth.” The common calendar ignores the moon. And yet, many continue to call it’s divisions “months” (moons).

    “The month is a calendric period derived from lunation, the time interval in which the Moon completes a full cycle of its phases” (The New Encyclopedia Britannica).

     The common calendar is strictly solar. This is because Rome’s ancient religious customs, just like many other peoples’, was engulfed in Sun worship. (Consider the fact that Islam, on the other hand, follows a strictly lunar calendar and its symbol is a crescent). The world’s two largest religions reflect their ancient origins on their face.

     There is only one time a year in which the common calendar recognizes the moon’s significance. That is for calculating Easter. At the Council of Nicea, Constantine the (not so) Great and his buddies decided that Spring should always begin on March 21st and Easter should always be on the first Sunday following the full-moon which follows the beginning of Spring.

     It seems Constantine and the boys, despite their insistence on being distinguished from the Jews, understood the relationship between the Resurrection and the Passover. The Passover always occurs on the fourteenth day of the first month (Leviticus 23:3). And the fourteenth day means fourteen days from the crescent new moon, which puts the Passover on the full moon. Hence, they dated Easter as the following Sunday (The New Encyclopedia Britannica).

     According to the (pre-exilic) Scriptures, the first month is called “Abib” (Exodus 13:4) which means “sprouting, budding” (Young’s Analytical Concordance, p.3). This is the Spring, when the Most High says, as He delivers His people out from under the hand of the Egyptians:

    This month is the beginning of months for you, it is the first month of the year for you (Exodus 12:2).

     Because Constantine ruled that Spring should always begin on March 21st, and because Julius Caesar’s corrections to the calendar were a little off, by  CE 1582 the discrepancy had grown to ten days. Incidentally, Pope Gregory XIII ruled that October 4th (Thursday) should be followed by October 15th (Friday). Although it had no effect on the weekly cycle, this caused great confusion.

      “Servants demanded their usual full monthly pay for the abridged month; employers refused. People objected to having their lives shortened by Papal decree.” (Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers, p. 8-9).

      In America, the people protested until 1752 when they finally made the change, which by then had grown to eleven days. Even  today the common calendar is not perfect. It is only a matter of time before confusion will arise. Though this topic is not spoken of normally it is a fact that, mathematically speaking the common calendar is still a little off.

     And while people celebrate the arrival of 2012 even this is wrong. The BC and AD designations come to us from a monk named Dionysius Exiguus who lived in the first half of the sixth century CE. It is now generally known that Dionysius was also a little off.

    “ the reference point of the birth of Christ represented ‘not the actual event but an agreed upon point from which all real events could be dated’” (Denis Feeney, Caesar’s Calendar, p. 8 quoting D. J. Wilcox, The Measure of Times Past: Pre-Newtonian Chronologies and the Rhetoric of Relative Time, p. 207).

     For one thing we know that Herod the (not so) Great was still alive in New Testament times (Matthew 2:1), yet historically speaking he died between 4-2 BCE. So Dionysius had to be at least 2 to 4 years off. And thus we already reached 2012 a few years ago. This is why we say CE (common era [or error]) instead of AD.

     So the fact is, the New Year celebrations on January 1 are, when we get down to it, just complete foolishness. The timing in the year is arbitrary, and commemorates an ancient idol. January is not even a “month” (moon) in the original and true sense of the word. And the count of years is off as well. Strangely, break from this tradition, or go about spreading this information trying to spark change and watch how you quickly are made out to be the strange one!

     In the Scriptures we read of a “peculiar people” being called out of the worldly system for a special purpose (Deuteronomy 14:2; 1 Peter 2:9). The situation today is not unlike when the Most High took His people out of Egypt.

     Though it is not commonly spoken of, the fact is, the common calendar was not invented by Rome. Julius Caesar did not create it out of nothing. The “Egyptian [solar] calendar...was adopted by Julius Caesar to make his Julian Calendar” (Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers, p.7).

      The Reform of the calendar by Pope Gregory XIII was needed [only] because the year that Julius Caesar had borrowed from the Egyptians, and which had ruled Western civilization since then, was not a precise enough measure of the solar cycle” (id.)

     Today the common calendar is usually called “Gregorian” but really it is just the Egyptian solar calendar with a bunch of Latin designations and a few necessary corrections made over the years. When the people were delivered out from under the hand of the Egyptians they were following the same calendar.

    “The Egyptians adopted the solar year method for marking time, a technique embraced also by the Jews [more correctly ‘Israelites’] before the exodus…”(Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, p.401).

     The astronomer whom Julius consulted was Sosigenes, an Alexandrian himself. And our designations for days “Saturday,” “Sunday” and “Monday” all originated with the Egyptians before the Greek and Latin peoples adopted them.

    “The days of our week remain a living witness to the early powers of astrology...The Eastern Church had some success in exterminating this pagan influence: the names of the days in both modern Greek and Russian ceased to be planetary. But Western Christianity proved more willing to turn Roman beliefs and prejudices to their own purpose” (The Discoverers, p. 14-16).

     Ultimately then, the situation today is the same as it was when the ancient Israelites were set free from Egypt. Significantly, the Hebrew word for “Egypt” literally means to be held captive (Strong’s, Heb. #4714 from # 6696). The people of our day and age are being held captive by falsehood. Though many do not acknowledge the spiritual nature of their actions they perpetuate them most religiously and constantly. The Master promises us, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32). Let us be grateful that we have been made free.

     Yahweh bless and keep you, and make His face shine upon you. And may these words be confirmed by many witnesses for all who seek.

  HalleluYah!