Birth Of “New Year” Did you know that original Roman calendar had only ten named months? That the year before the addition of two months – the ‘new year’ began in March? Did you know months ‘July’ and ‘August’ are named after two Roman kings? No? Then this column by Padma Prasad Hegde (PP Hegde) is just for you! Column by Padma Prasad Hegde, L.L.M., Advocate Not many may know but in the original Roman calendar there were only ten named months. The year, then, happened to begin in March, when the flowers of spring and agricultural works began. Also, he was Roman King Numa Pompilius, around 700 B.C., who attempted to regularize the Roman calendar by defining the two bleak winter months; he called them “ Januarius ” (January), and “ Februarius ” (February). He also decided to change the beginning of the year from its ancient post in “Marius”, our March, to January. Eventually, the number of days in April as well as many other months changed. June – the month of the Queen of the Gods – found herself increased to 30 days from original 29. Eventually another Roman emperor named Julius Caesar decided that he himself warranted his own month so he named July after himself. His successor, Augustus had similar ideas of grandeur and named the subsequent month of August after himself. Yet the Romans retained the names for the remainder of the months as they had been designated, by the numbers. And so we have the subsequent months named for their position in the original calendar (which had been only ten months long, as you will remember) which began in March. By the early Medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by God and conceived a son to be called Jesus.) Because the Julian Calendar was still not quite aligned with the Earth’s revolution around the sun, Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 changed the calendar yet again. By the Julian reckoning, the solar year comprised 365.25 days, however there was a slight inaccuracy in the Julian measurement (the solar year is actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds = 365.2422 days). This inaccuracy caused the Julian calendar to slip behind the seasons about one day per century. Although this regression had amounted to 14 days by Pope Gregory’s time, he based his reform on restoration of the vernal equinox, then falling on March 11, to the date had 1,257 years earlier when Council of Nicaea was convened (March 21, 325 C.E.). Pope Gregory made the correction by advancing the calendar 10 days. The change was made the day after October 4, 1582, and that following day was established as October 15, 1582. As per Gregorian calendar, the New Year would begin with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus – January 1. When the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the UK in September 1752 in place of the Julian calendar, the two were out of step by 11 days. However, it was felt unacceptable for the tax authorities to lose out on 11 days’ tax revenues, so the start of the tax year was moved, firstly to 5 April and then, in 1800, to 6 April. The Christian calendar begins on 1st January, yet the financial year starts from 1st April, why? What is the history behind this? 400 years before India i.e. Bharath was the World Trade Center. Bharath’s share in world trade was 23%, that of Britain was 2% and US was a mere 0.2%. Bharath’s wealth attracted most nations of the world. England formed British East India Company in 1600 AD to get a large slice of India’s trade. Dutch East India Company in 1602 and French East India Company in 1664 were subsequently formed with the same intentions. When British East India Company landed in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bengal they saw that the Hindus celebrated their New Year day or Vishu or Vaisakhi on 1st April. Hence the British also adopted April 1st as the beginning of New Year for their commercial activities. The Hindu Solar New Year Day or Vishu or Vaisakhi day which used to coincide on 1st April became the International Financial year Day. But today our Vishu or Vaisakhi day falls on 13th or 14th April. Why so, one may ask out of plain curiosity. We will now see how this difference of 12 or 13 days occurred over these four centuries. To understand this we need to consider the changes that have taken place in the Christian Calendar during this period. In the Julian and modified Julian calendar that existed before 1582 AD, 1st January and 1st April fell on Hindu festivals namely Makara Sankranti and Besakih the Hindu solar New Year. The influence of Hinduism can be easily appreciated from the fact that these days are declared holidays in Europe. On 24th February 1582 Pope Gregory issued a papal bull, Inter Gravissimas, establishing what is now called the Gregorian calendar reform. Until 1582 the 1st April fell on the Vaisakhi day which was also the solar New Year as per the Indian calendar. In 1583 however, the 1st April preceded Vaisakhi by 10 days and hence it was 11th April on the Vaisakhi day. Also as per the calendar reform, the century years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not counted as leap years as these numbers are not divisible by 400. As a result the Christian Calendar further gained another three days, thus adding up to 13 days as the difference between 1st of April and the Vaisakhi day. That explains why Vaisakhi falls on the 14th or 13th of April now. The above explanation is also valid for Makar Sankranti which falls on January 14/13 today. Originally January 1st. coincided with Makar Sankranti . Initially most countries in Europe continued to observe March 25 as their New Year which was very close to Hindu lunar New Year day or Varsha Pratipada . In Europe April 1, therefore coincided with Vaisakhi till the year 1582, and in case of Britain till the year 1752 and in case of Russia this continued till 1918. This day of 1st April was the day of merriment not only in Bharath but all over Europe. Many hoaxes and pranks were played to make the day memorable. Canadian government too begins its fiscal year on 1st April. In England and Wales, local government reorganizations traditionally happen on April 1st. So much for idea of “New Year”! Padma Prasad (PP) Hegde is a practicing advocate at the Bangalore High Court. He is also the National President of Youth for Nation
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 17:00:15 +0000
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