h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone know why Christmas day and New Year's day aren't the same day? I'm not a Christian so I hadn't thought about it before. I just had this vague idea that Jesus was born on 25 December (though I'm aware that they don't really know when he was born) and that the year 2001 is the year 2001 because JC was (apparently) born 2001 years ago. Have I got it all wrong? Is it 2001 years since he died instead of 2001 years since he was born? Does everyone else know and I'm the only one they didn't tell? What's going on?

I blame Pope Gregory.

Tut! Popes, ah?

Still, I wasn't really looking for someone to blame - I just wondered if there was a reason and if so, what is it?

Salamander,

The date of 25 Dec was chosen as a suitable day for the birth of Jesus Christ because there was already a religious festival at this time. 25 Dec is the first day after the winter solstice that you can notice the days starting to get longer. This is very important in Europe, as most other major civilisations are closer to the equator and not as affected by seasonal variations. The sun-worshipping religions of Europe always celebrated the return of the Sun around 25-Dec. It was called "Yule" in England. When Europe converted to Christianity, they took over the old feast and made it into a Christian feast.

The present system of month names and dates comes from the Romans who originally started their year on 1 March. Why they picked this date I don't know. It was probably at this time of year because of Spring, but why the 1st of March rather than the 21st, a day that can be accurately calculated by observing the sun? Anyway, with the 1st of March fixed, all the rest of the days followed, so the Birthday of Christ did not fall on 1 January for this reason. Later the Romans changed to using 1 Jan as the start of the year.

Some time in about 600 AD, a monk invented the present system of dating things since the Birth of Christ. He reckoned that Christ was born some time around what is now labelled as 25-Dec 1 BC. So that the new system of dating started 1 AD just 7 days later. (Note that there was no year 0 in his system so 1 BC is immediately followed by 1 AD). So the AD system, which literally means "the year of the Lord" is dated from the birth of Christ. Later historical investigations found that he couldn't possibly have been born as late as 1 BC and was more likely born around 6 BC. The only records of his birth give very little detail about when it happened, but they do mention the king of Judaea at the time and he is known to have died in 6 BC.

Now that's what I call an answer! Gnomon, consider doing a guide entry on this. There's the making of one in that answer - in fact, I think that answer might make a "stand-alone" guide entry. Very comprehensive and interesting. Lovely. Thank you very much.

Sal

If it´s going to be an entry I just thought I´d elaborate on it. The word Yule that was used is actually old nordic(You know, we invaded the English and gave them lots of new words) for the word Wheel. In danish today that is named Hjul, while Christmas is named Jul. Wheel is because it was the "turn of the year".

Don´t you other people also find it to be pretty bad, that the date for solstice was so unprecise. I would have thought they´d be able to make it much more precise than that, considering their navigational skills.

Why do you think it is imprecise? The Solstice is the 21st or 22nd, depending on the year, but it is not a cause for celebration, as it is the time when the Sun is furthest away on its travels to the netherworld, and the day the shortest. The time to celebrate is when the sun starts to come back, which is a few days later!

The pre-Celtic people of Great Britain and Ireland knew the time of the Solstice exactly (see Stonehenge and Newgrange), but the people who set the date of Christmas were the Romans, who living further south where it was not so important.

I seem to remember that New Years Day was at one time at the end of March/beginning of April, and that some of the April Fools' celebration link into the fact that some people refused to moved to the new ways. This is also when the financial year ends for many organisations.
It also has symbolism in the Christian Church. If you work it out, 25 March is exactly nine (calendar) months before Christmas Day. Therefore it was recognised as the date of the Annunciation, and some bright spark also claimed it was the anniversary of the creation of the world, the expulsion from the garden, the killiong of the Dragon by St George and (of course) the original Easter Day.
25 March is alos the date used by Tolkien for the destruction of the One Ring, and New Years in Middle Earth were to start from that date henceforth, trust him...
For many Christians Easter is more important than Christmas, so everybody seemed quite happy with New Years starting then...

In England, there were four days in the year which were called Quarter Days. These were Lady Day (25 March), St John's Day (25 Jun), Michaelmas Day (25 September) and Christmas Day (25 December). These were the days on which quarterly rent was due. St John's Day was also called "Midsummer Day". The year began on 25 March. When the new Gregorian calendar was adopted in the 18th century, the beginning of the year was moved to 1 January but the financial year was left where it was. 11 days had to be omitted from the year to make it in line with the seasons, so the financial year start moved from 25 March to 5 April. In 1800, because a leap day was omitted from the calendar, it was decided to move the financial year start to 6 April, but in 1900 when another leap day was omitted, the financial year did not move. It was decided that it should be fixed at 6 April for ever. It is still there now.

Ireland followed England, but has now decided to move the financial year to 1 January.

We are such a fine of information that it scares me...

It's brilliant. A question suddenly occurs to you, you post it to the "Ask the h2g2 Community", and receive a complete answer, leaving no detail unexplained. Absolutely brilliant and I'm very impressed!

Sal

There's a certain element of trust involved, too. You obviously believe my answer. I do too. But I might be wrong.

That, of course, is the leaven in the bread of every H2G2 entry: I have yet to try crossing the road in Kuwait or speaking Klingon, but I'm trusing my fellow researchers not to allow me to make a fool of myself...
Naive? or inspired?

That's something we're all stuck with really, isn't it. Your answer sounds plausible based on the stuff I already know about the subject. I've also come across some of your other postings from time to time and you seem to know what you're talking about. My judgement may be questionable, but I have confidence in it. We can't go out and discover everything anew for ourselves so we have to trust the word of, at least, some people.

I seem to have said I trust you. Now don't let me down!

Sal

Makes me feel proud to be part of this