Reflection on New Year's Day
The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!
Today is the beginning of the New Year. But if you read up on the history of New Year’s Day, you learn that the choice of January 1st is actually rather arbitrary. Many other cultures throughout history and today use different calendars.
Ancient cultures often began their New Year later on in the winter. Semitic cultures began the New Year at the fall harvest. The Chinese New Year begins in winter, and the Jewish and Muslim New Years begin in the fall.
The ancient Greeks and Romans began their New Year in March, the first month (that is why December, the last month, literally means “the tenth”). Later, they added two more months, January and February, in honor of the gods.
Julius Caesar reformed the calendar and set January 1st as New Year's Day. But after the coming of Christ, Christians distinguished themselves by not celebrating the pagan festivals: they focused instead on the feast of Easter as the high point of the year.
Beginning in the fourth century, a popular day to begin the New Year was Lady Day, March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation. Soon, many countries began the New Year on March 25th, if not on Christmas or Easter, to make clear that the year begins with Christ.
We still celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation yearly on March 25th, near the spring equinox, nine months before Christmas Day. Just when life starts to begin (or end, for the southern hemisphere) again, we remember when the one who is Eternal Life itself was conceived in Mary’s womb.
When day and night are perfectly equal, we recall the first day of creation, when God separated the light from the darkness. On the feast of the Annunciation, we remember the beginning of the New Creation, when Jesus came into our world in Mary's womb.
In 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar one last time, the beginning of the New Year was changed back to January 1st—though it took a couple of centuries for most countries to adopt the reform.
In fact, in the English-speaking world, including our own colonial America, New Year’s Day was always celebrated on the Feast of the Annunciation, up until 1752! (And in Maryland, this day holds special significance: 386 years ago, on this day, the Feast of the Annunciation, Fr Andrew White SJ landed on an island in the Potomac, having set sail four months earlier from England—from where he had departed in hiding, to avoid capture, because he was a priest.)
But now we begin the calendar year on another Lady Day, this time the Feast of Mary the Mother of God, eight days after the birth of Jesus Christ. As this day remains a celebration of hope for many, it’s fitting: Mary is the first sign that our hope is not in vain.
For many, New Year’s Day is celebrated as a chance to forget all past mistakes, and look forward to a new year of possibilities. For the pagan world, two thousand years ago, the New Year festivities celebrated the endless cycle of life and death that no one can escape:
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die! We’re not too far from that spirit in today’s world: New Year’s Eve was a chance to party and forget about our ordinary lives, at least for one night. But as Christians we do something different. We celebrate not another cycle but its final resolution.
We feast not to forget, but to remember; to celebrate what God has already done for us, once and for all, in Jesus Christ – and what he continues to do for us every year. We eat, drink, and be merry, we feast, because one day we will live forever, if we remain in Christ.
We can turn away from the mistakes of the past with real hope, because Christ has won the victory already. Everything in my life will be redeemed, restored, and made new again – if I remain in Christ. A final resolution is coming, a resolution that will be complete and total.
One day, God will make all things new again and wipe away every tear from our eyes. What a reason to feast and party! The Lord will bless us and keep us forever! One day, his face will shine upon us! His kindness will never leave us and we will know peace at last.
We just need to say “Yes!” and keep saying, “Yes!” – let it be done to me according to your word. “Yes!” to the Lord’s will. “Yes!” to receiving Jesus into our daily lives. “Yes!” to becoming an instrument through which God can come into the world. And Mary shows us how.