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New Year’s Day closures; thank a pope for Jan. 1 holiday

Pope Gregory XIII

Pope Gregory XIII, a 16th century Italian holy man, is responsible for most of the modern world celebrating the new year on Jan. 1. This statue of Gregory stands at Bologna city hall in Italy. Adobe Stock image

All Highland Lakes city, county, and state government offices along with banks in Burnet and Llano counties will be closed for New Year’s Day on Wednesday, Jan. 1. Postal and delivery services will also be suspended for the holiday.

Some small businesses might close or have altered hours, but large stores, like H-E-B and Walmart, will function under normal hours of operation.

HOLIDAY HISTORY

Jan. 1 was not considered the first day of the year until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII established what is now known as the Gregorian calendar. 

In ancient times, Romulus, the semi-mythic founder of Rome, created a 304-day calendar that celebrated the new year in what is now March, coinciding with the coming of spring. This system was hopelessly flawed as it was not based on accurate measurements of Earth’s orbit around the sun. 

Years later, Rome’s second king, Numa Pompilius established the month of Januarius, which later became January. Historians believe Romans began marking the new year in January by 153 BCE, but this calendar still was not accurate.

After becoming dictator of Rome in 46 BCE, Julius Caesar further refined the calendar, bringing it to within 11 minutes of an accurate solar year. The Julian calendar was the first to implement a “leap day” every four years.

This calendar spread across Europe and became the standard of all Christian peoples by the medieval era, but many still celebrated the first of the year on Dec. 25 in honor of Christmas or March 25 as part of the Feast of Annunciation, which commemorates the day the archangel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus.

The 11-minute error in the Julian calendar had a compounding effect over time, and the year was off by 10 days by the 16th century. To fix this, Pope Gregory XIII formalized the first day of January as the first of the year and made it so leap days only fell on years divisible by 400, creating a nearly perfect calendar in alignment with a solar year.

While the Gregorian calendar was accurate, it took nearly two centuries for Protestant nations, like Great Britain and its American colonies, to adopt it due to the strong resentment for Catholic authority. The calendar was finally adopted by the British in 1752.

The Gregorian calendar is almost universally used around the globe today, but many cultures have their own traditions when it comes to new year’s celebrations. Chinese New Year is traditionally celebrated on the second moon following the winter solstice, which usually falls somewhere between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20. The 2025 Chinese New Year is Jan. 29.

dakota@thepicayune.com