The Not-So-New Year’s Celebrations

By Nathan Watts and Tristan Townes

Ha ha! You thought I was going to do a Christmas history article, didn’t you? Sorry, but it’ll have to wait for another time, because this year we’re giving a shout out to one of the world’s most under-appreciated holidays, New Year’s Eve! Now I know what you’re thinking, “But Nathan, my whole family celebrates New Year’s! How can a holiday be under-appreciated if all of the country celebrates it?” And to that, we say “We’re doing this anyways!” Yes, the winter celebrations are far from over, considering Christmas is just around the corner, but New Year’s seems paltry compared to the big C-mas, so I’ve called in assistance in wishing a happy birthday to Baby New Year! Introduce yourself, Tristan!

Yo what’s up readers! It’s time to drop old habits and take on new challenges. Let’s do our best to make this New Year better than ever.

Truly inspirational words from my partner in celebration. But let’s get straight to the point: how did New Year’s become the holiday that it is? We’re going back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, the 11 day celebration of Akitu (Sumerian for barley, a crop cut in the spring). For Babylonians, the first new moon after the vernal equinox, the day in March with equal night and day times, was the signal of the new year.

Akitu not only celebrated the new year, but also the mythical victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk over the sea goddess Tiamat. This celebration served an important political purpose. It was during this time that the new king would be crowned, or the current ruler’s reign renewed.

However, civilizations tend to hate each other and would not follow the same calendar. Throughout history, calendars have changed and reformed based on which civilization was in power, basically whoever killed the last leader. Usually, they would create their calendar based on how the world around them changed annually in terms of astronomical movement, and whether or not their family was dying of cold and hunger. For instance, the Egyptian new year began with the flooding of the Nile river, a very important religious and agricultural event.

The Nile River was a very important part of Egypt’s survival, being the only significant source of water in the desert region. The Nile was Egypt’s “gateway” to the unknown world. Flowing south to north, the Nile would flood each year, bringing in silt-laden waters and, when the flood ended, the silt would remain, fertilizing farm land. The flood had to be just right, a flood too large would go over the mud barricades, or dykes, protecting the villages, but a flood too small, or no flood at all, would surely mean famine. Knowing nothing of the weather related explanations for the flood, the Egyptians took comfort in the belief that the flood was the annual coming of their god Hapi, the lord of the fish and birds of the marshes, who was believed to bring the floods to help fertilize and grow crops.

Eventually, as most things were, the Romans revolutionized the calendar. Initially, the Roman calendar was 10 months with 304 days. The calendar was supposedly created by Romulus, the founder of Rome and father of all Romans. However, over the centuries the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and Julius Caesar decided that it needed a change. Consulting the world’s best astronomers, he reinvented the calendar, naming January 1st as the first day of the year in honor of Janus, the Roman god of beginnings whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future.

To celebrate the new year, the Romans attended parties, gave gifts, and made sacrifices to Janus. They also decorated their homes with laurel branches. Christian leaders in medieval Europe temporarily replaced January 1 with other religiously significant days of the year, such as the birth of Jesus on December 25th or the Feast of Annunciation on March 25th. In 1582, January 1st was reestablished as New Year’s Day by Pope Gregory XIII. Many of the Romans’ traditions have carried on to the modern day.

There you have it! thanks to good, old fashioned, ancient technology, we not only have the calendar that we use today, but we also got a holiday out of the package! And now, with Tristan’s help, we bring you a list of New Year’s resolutions courtesy of the students and staff of the KHS Rampage!

“Pass Pre-calc”

“Pass algebra tbh”

“Focus on my schoolwork and keep my grades up”

These three went together, so well that I just had to put them next to each other! Interesting how two of these are specifically about math classes, isn’t it? To any math teachers out there, keep up the good work, but make sure to go easy on your students! Math is often a student’s most dreaded class. Mine, ironically enough, is history.

“Learn how to make a meal other than mac n’ cheese”

Ah yes, mac n’ cheese, a college student’s worst friend. Going into adulthood, it’s important to learn how to cook, assuming that you have enough money to afford ingredients. Call me up sometime, I have a toast recipe that’ll knock yer socks off!

(the secret ingredient is butter)

“Get more sleep”

“Manage my time better”

The bane of every student’s schedule: sleep. It’s the best and worst part of your day. You can finally find the rest that you need, but at the cost of several waking hours flushed down the drain. Who needs sleep when I can stay up all night watching Netflix, right? The only problem is that you can’t count sheep if they fall asleep before you do!

“Be happier”

“Be healthier”

Unfortunately, this is all too common among students. In order to keep up with work, school, and a social life, many students sacrifice health and happiness. The best thing to remember if this situation is your own is to just say “no” and make yourself the number one person in your life. The instinct to please comes naturally to humans, but we have to remember that no one will be happy if you can’t even be happy yourself.