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#13: Why is New Year, New Year?

English Learning for Curious Minds

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The Julian Calendar and the New Year's Festivity

The earliest recorded New Year's festivity goes back to ancient Babylon around 4000 years ago. The Romans, used to celebrate the New Year and did so at a similar time to the Babylonians in late March. Their calendar only had 10 months, or 304 days, and so it was constantly falling out of sync with the solar calendar which has 365 days. Julius Caesar decided that he wanted to fix this, so he consulted the wise men of the time and they came up with the idea of the Julian calendar - based on the solar year. It was the first calendar to use January the 1st as the first day of the year. But what happened? Well the Romans had to add extra days

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