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We all celebrate on December 31st and January 1stthe coming of a new year. Have we ever sat back and wondered what does this really mean? Why do we celebrate January 1st as the official first day of the new year? Has it always been on this date? Join me as we delve into these questions in this article.

The earliest recorded festivities in honor of a new year’s arrival date back some 4,000 years to ancient Babylon. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox—the day in late March with an equal amount of sunlight and darkness—heralded the start of a new year. They marked the occasion with a massive religious festival called Akitu (derived from the Sumerian word for barley, which was cut in the spring) that involved a different ritual on each of its 11 days. This is according to https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-yearsand so does the following information. So this shows the new year was not always on January 1st or is this just a confusion over a change in the calendar system. Let us see if another celebration exists in history. If so, why the change? In Egypt, for instance, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius. The first day of the Lunar New Year, meanwhile, occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice. This could be confusing I can see for each civilization having its own first day of the year differently. Another example comes from https://www.backthenhistory.com/articles/the-history-of-new-years-daywhere they point out that for the ancient Chinese, the new year began with the second new moon after the winter solstice. According to https://www.classicalhistorian.com/johns-blog/a-history-of-new-years-daythe new years had another date according a another ancient civilization. In 2000 B.C., Mesopotamians celebrated the vernal equinox as the beginning of a new year.  They go on to explain what is the vernal equinox for those who are not familiar with the term. Vernal means “Spring”, and equinox means “equal night”. On the vernal equinox, March 20th, the sun is located above the equator and day and night are about equal length. For those living in the Northern Hemisphere, March 20th marks the beginning of Spring. After this day, there is an increasing amount of sunlight every day until the beginning of Summer, June 21. For ancient people, celebrating the vernal equinox as the New Year was very logical. People were moving away from darkness into the light. Agrarian people rely on the power of the sun in growing crops. For the ancients, the vernal equinox was a time to celebrate birth, sunlight, and fertility. How do we get everyone to agree to a specific date or time for the first of a year is a tricky question. 

According to https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-yearsthey begin to paint where the date January 1st comes to be the official start of the new year. The early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each new year beginning at the vernal equinox; according to tradition, it was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. A later king, Numa Pompilius, is credited with adding the months of Januarius and Februarius. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem by consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time. He introduced the Julian calendar, which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today. As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties. Well it seems we need to thank Rome for giving us a date for the new year. But does this hold true to current times…..let us take a look and see.

In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 (the anniversary of Jesus’ birth) and March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation); Pope Gregory XIII reestablished January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582. https://www.classicalhistorian.com/johns-blog/a-history-of-new-years-daypoints out another date in history for the start of the new year yet again happens. In 567 at the Council of Tours, Christians abolished the celebrations of January 1 because they considered them pagan. Instead, they celebrated the new year on December 25th, the day the Church chose to honor the birth of Jesus. However, there weren’t mass celebrations of the new year, as knowledge of the exact date was not widespread. They also point out that In 1582, much of the Western world reformed the Julian Calendar because of its inaccuracies and adopted the Gregorian Calendar. Named after Pope Gregory III, the calendar restored January 1st as the New Year Day. Great Britain kept the Julian calendar until 1752, and it was at this time that the English colonists started celebrating January 1st as New Year’s Day. 

Now that we have established why we celebrate January 1stas the official new year start, let us take a quick look at where some traditions come from to ring in the new year for a little fun. I wonder how many of the readers know of these traditions and there true origins.

According to https://www.history.com/news/new-years-history-festive-factsthe new year traditions began for different reasons in different areas. “Auld Lang Syne,” the title of a Scottish folk song that many English speakers sing at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, roughly translates to “days gone by.” The poet Robert Burns is credited with transcribing, adapting and partially rewriting it in the late 18th century. Its lyrics, which rhetorically ask whether “auld acquaintance” should “be forgot,” have been interpreted as a call to remember friends and experiences from the past. Though sung on New Year’s Eve since the mid-19th century, it became firmly cemented as a holiday standard when Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians played it during a radio broadcast from New York’s Roosevelt Hotel at midnight on December 31, 1929. In Spain and several other Spanish-speaking countries, people bolt down a dozen grapes—symbolizing their hopes for the months ahead—right before midnight. In many parts of the world, traditional New Year’s dishes feature legumes, which are thought to resemble coins and herald future financial success; examples include lentils in Italy and black-eyed peas in the southern United States. Because pigs represent progress and prosperity in some cultures, pork appears on the New Year’s Eve table in Cuba, Austria, Hungary, Portugal and other countries. Ring-shaped cakes and pastries, a sign that the year has come full circle, round out the feast in the Netherlands, Mexico, Greece and elsewhere. In Sweden and Norway, meanwhile, rice pudding with an almond hidden inside is served on New Year’s Eve; it is said that whoever finds the nut can expect 12 months of good fortune.

For fun here is some history of the ball drop ceremony in New York. The world-famous celebration dates back to 1904, when the New York Times newspaper relocated to what was then known as Longacre Square and convinced the city to rename the neighborhood in its honor. At the end of the year, the publication’s owner threw a raucous party with an elaborate fireworks display. When the city banned fireworks in 1907, an electrician devised a wood-and-iron ball that weighed 700 pounds, was illuminated with 100 light bulbs and was dropped from a flagpole at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Lowered almost every year since then, the iconic orb has undergone several upgrades over the decades and now weighs in at nearly 12,000 pounds. In more recent years, various towns and cities across America have developed their own versions of the Times Square ritual, organizing public drops of items ranging from pickles (Dillsburg, Pennsylvania) to possums (Tallapoosa, Georgia) at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

So no matter how you choose to ring in the new year, let us remember that it is a beginning and that stands for a fresh start or time to start new ideas. Let us remember that it is not a fixed date in time but merely a state of mind. A mindset that brings hope into everyone for a better tomorrow. Let us celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of a new year of adventure. What will it bring us? Let us find out each new day…..

We have Valentine’s Day approaching this month and I find myself wondering when did this holiday start. Why did it start? Is it a Hallmark Cards generated holiday? Where did the traditions, if any, associated with this holiday begin? Was Valentine’s Day always February 14th? I am going to delve into these questions and more so please read on and join me into the world of Valentine’s Day.

According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Day, given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century. Wow. This is a part of the holiday I have never heard about. What other mysteries can we uncover about this holiday?

Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl—possibly his jailor’s daughter—who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and—most importantly—romantic figure.

According to https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-facts, some trace Valentine’s Day origins to a Christian effort to replace a pagan fertility festival that has been dated as far back as the 6th century B.C. During the festival of Lupercalia, Roman priests would sacrifice goats and dogs and use their blood-soaked hides to slap women on the streets, as a fertility blessing. According to legend, women would later put their names in an urn and be selected to be paired with a man for a year. Every year, thousands of romantics send letters addressed to Verona, Italy to “Juliet,” the subject of the timeless romantic tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet.” The city marks the location of the Shakespearean tale, and the letters that reach the city are dutifully answered by a team of volunteers from the Juliet Club. Each year, on Valentine's Day, the club awards the "Cara Giulietta" ("Dear Juliet") prize to the author of the most touching love letter.

Another source, https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9299/valentines-day-history/, states There have been at least three different martyred Saint Valentines recognized by the Catholic Church, making it tricky to identify the real-life man behind the holiday. However, popular legend holds that the Roman Emperor Claudius II executed one, Saint Valentine of Terni, on February 14 around 278 A.D. His crime? Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies in secret after Claudius II outlawed unions to encourage men to join the army. Supposedly, Valentine signed a farewell note before he was beheaded, "From Your Valentine." We may never know who this holiday is named for and that may be okay. Let us take a look at when it was declared an official holiday.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9299/valentines-day-history/states an official declaration of the holiday was done by the papal church. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as the First Feast Day of Saint Valentine. Whether this was purely a move to honor a Saint—or a strategic effort to Christianize the unsavory pagan Lupercalia—is still a subject of debate. 

https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2states Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”—at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, ““For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” It seems a good time to look into the traditions of this day and when they started.

When was the first Valentine card given to a loved one? The answer may surprise you. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2goes on to point out In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factsalso states the first Valentine was written from prison and tell a grim tale. History’s first valentine was written in perhaps one of the most unromantic places conceivable: a prison. Charles, Duke of Orleans wrote the love letter to his second wife at the age of 21 while captured at the Battle of Agincourt. As a prisoner for more than 20 years, he would never see his valentine’s reaction to the poem he penned to her in the early 15th century.

Did you know that there was even a way to rebuke a Valentine’s Day note or affection. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factsstates that during the Victoria Era, those who didn’t want the attention of certain suitors would anonymously send “vinegar valentines." These cards, also called penny dreadfuls, were the antithesis of customary valentines, comically insulting and rejecting unwanted admirers. They were later used to target suffragettes in the late 19th and early 20th century. I have often wondered what penny dreadfuls came from as that was a term I heard not spoken often.

Ever wonder whom we have to thank for the connection of giving flowers on Valentine’s Day was…..look no further as https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factshas the answer. The tradition of giving flowers to loved ones on Valentine's Day originated in the 17th century when King Charles II of Sweden popularized "the language of flowers", or attaching conversationalist meanings to different types of flowers, throughout Europe. The most traditional type for Valentine's Day became the rose because of it's association with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Did you know the expression “Wearing your heart on your sleeves” comes from Valentine’s Day? According to https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-facts, the term “wearing your heart on your sleeve” may have origins in picking a valentine. Smithsonian reports that during the Middle Ages, men would draw the names of women who they would be coupled with for the upcoming year while attending a Roman festival honoring Juno. After choosing, the men wore the names on their sleeves to show their bond during the festivities. Another interesting note attached with Valentine’s Day is the chalky Sweetheart candies. Their origin may surprise you and may make you rethink this candy. The iconic chalky heart-shaped candies that have been passed out lovingly every Valentine’s Day started out as lozenges. According to the Food Business News, pharmacist and inventor Oliver Chase created a machine that would quickly create the lozenges before switching to using the machine to create candy—later known as Necco Wafers. Chase’s brother came up with the idea to print messages on the candy in 1866, and the candies got their heart shape in 1901, appealing specifically to Valentine’s Day sweethearts. Who knew….

Do you know when and why Cupid became associated with Valentine’s Day? https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factsexplains the chubby baby with wings and a bow and arrow that we call Cupid has been associated with Valentine’s Day for centuries. However, before he was renamed Cupid, he was known to the ancient Greeks as Eros, the god of love. Eros, the son of Greek goddess Aphrodite, would use two sets of arrows—one for love and another for hate—to play with the emotions of his targets. It wasn’t until stories of his mischief were told by Romans that he adopted the childlike appearance that we recognize today. Also do you know when the X became a symbol/letter to represent love and kisses. The idea of using a kiss to sign off on valentines also has a long history, according to the Washington Post. The use of “X” came to represent Christianity, or the cross, in the Middle Ages. During the same time, the symbol was used to sign off on documents. After marking with an X, the writer would often kiss the mark as a sign of their oath. As the gesture grew among kings and commoners to certify books, letters and paperwork, these records were described as having been “sealed with a kiss.” Who says you cannot keep learning new things. Wow.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9299/valentines-day-history/and https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2, printed Valentine’s are older than we realize. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today, according to Hallmark, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (more cards are sent at Christmas). Celebrating Valentine's Day steadily gained in popularity through the 19th century—especially once the greeting-card industry was in full swing thanks to the Industrial Revolution's printing press and cheaper postage. Esther A. Howland (known as "Mother of the Valentine") began selling the first mass-produced cards in America in the 1840s and Hallmark Cards entered the scene in 1913.

An interesting fact I came across about Valentine’s Day may surprise some of you as well. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Daystates traditional gifts include candy and flowers, particularly red roses, a symbol of beauty and love. The day is popular in the United States as well as in Britain, Canada, and Australia, and it is also celebrated in other countries, including Argentina, France, Mexico, and South Korea. In the Philippines it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date. The holiday has expanded to expressions of affection among relatives and friends. Many schoolchildren exchange valentines with one another on this day. 

Valentine’s Day did have a huge dark day one year in Chicago which is in their history but has not affected people’s spirits there and still celebrate the holiday. https://www.history.com/news/valentines-day-massacre-caponewrites that Al Capone had another idea for this holiday to send a message. On the morning of Valentine’s Day, 1929, a group of men with tommy guns, a 12-gauge and police uniforms stepped out of a black Cadillac. Entering a garage belonging to the SMC Cartage Company at 2212 N. Clark St in Chicago, they lined up against the wall six gangsters and a gambler, blasting them to death, firing squad style. The newspapers called it a “gang shooting.” A city detective said the men “died like dogs.” The local coroner, Herman N. Bundesen, who had done many things in his life, from educating Chicagoans about syphilis to writing a baby-rearing manual, found himself at the heart of the case. Working with the police commissioner and state attorney, he empanelled a special jury of six leading businessmen and officials. The evidence they would sift through included bullets embedded in the wall where the men had been shot and the hats that the alleged gangsters had been wearing when they died. Getting to the bottom of the case was a matter of extreme urgency. To the press and public, the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was a sign that gang violence in Prohibition-era (1920-33) America was spiraling out of control. Far from tempering Americans’ habits, all it had done was put cash in the pockets and blood on the hands of men like the 30-year old mob boss many suspected of having ordered the hit: Alphonse Gabriel ‘Al’ Capone. I share this to empathize that tragedy can happen on any day and is up to the individuals how it will affect them.

Valentine’s Day is a day about remembering the ones we love. Could be family members, friends, partners, spouses, significant others and even pets. This day is a reminder in my opinion to look past all the hardship starting this new year and remember to say to those who are supporting you and being there for you a simple acknowledgment of thank you and love you for all you do. After finding out all of this history about this day, I know it will forever have new meaning in my heart. I offer all of you who read this a simple request, turn to the people around you and just simply say love all you do for me and appreciate everything. A little kindness it seems can echo throughout history. Even the darkest of times can be turned around with a simply act of kindness and acknowledgement of someone being seen.