Happy New Year's Day!
With firecrackers, trumpets, fountains, revving up our car engines, banging metal things up and down, shouting, singing on videokes, and all the noise we can think of doing just to name a few.
Why do we celebrate New Year?
We celebrate New Year as the beginning of Earth's another cycle in the vast Universe. And we believe that making noise rattles bad or evil spirits to drive them away as far as possible. So the louder the better. At least that is what we have come to know.
But then, saan ba talaga nagsimula ang New Year's Day celebration?
The earliest known record of a New Year festival dates from about 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia. Sa Babylonia, ang new year (akitu) ay nagsisimula tuwing new moon matapos ang spring equinox (mid-March). Sa Assyria naman ay tuwing autum equinox (mid-September)
Sa Greece ay tuwing winter solstice (December 21), kasabay ang Yuletide season o sa mas popular na Christmas season. On the Roman republican calendar the year began on March 1, but after 153 BCE the official date was January 1, which was continued in the Julian calendar of 46 BCE.
In early medieval times most of Christian Europe regarded March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year, although New Year’s Day was observed on December 25 in Anglo-Saxon England.
Noon pa man marami nang pagkakaiba sa mga dates on when to celebrate New Year's Day. Ang Gregorian Calendar, isang pagan form of calendar, ay January 1 ang unang araw ng taon. Ito na rin ang sinundan ng Christendom at mga Romano Katoliko nuong 1582.
Na hanggang sa kasalukuyan ay syang ating pinagdiriwang. Maliban nalang sa ibang bansa na may sariling petsa at pamamaraan tulad sa China na may Chinese New Year mula bandang katapusan ng January o sa bungad ng February.
Ngunit saan ba nagmula ang New Year's Day?
Sa kabila ng napakarami at iba't ibang petsa, ay January 1 ang pinakapopular na petsang nakagawian na.
January, first month of the Gregorian calendar. It was named after Janus, the Roman god of all beginnings.
Janus is a Roman religion pagan god of doorways. The worship of Janus traditionally dated back to Romulus times bago pa man maitayo ang city of Rome. Janus is commonly depicted as having 2faces. One facing the past, with beard and old face while the other facing the future, with clean and shaved young face.
Janus is also regarded as the god of all beginnings. Ang panimula ng araw, buwan, at higit sa lahat, ng taon ay sagrado sa ngalan ni Janus.
CTTO
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Janus". Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Janus-Roman-god. Accessed 1 January 2023. 23:00
