Many people are unaware of the fact that the original New Year’s Day has nothing to do with January 1st. The truth is that the new year was actually supposed to take place in March, after the time of creation. According to the scripture, the Most High God gave the ancient Israelites the actual month of the first new year. The instructions are found in three Bible chapters in Deuteronomy, Exodus, and the book of Esther.
Observe the month of Abib (nisan), and keep the Passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.
Deuteronomy 16:1-2 KJV
The book of Exodus might also provide us with the exact meaning. In this chapter, we learn that the Most High God (YAH) told Moses and Aaron when the new year should start.
Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Exodus 12:1-2 NKJV
It was also revealed in the book of Esther that Nisan is indeed supposed to be the divine-ordained first month of the year. This sums up the entire point I am trying to make in this article.
In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on[a] the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
Esther 3:7 (NIV)
I know some people may not know what “Nisan” means. We can gain a more in-depth understanding of the meaning of the word “Nisan” by looking at the Collins dictionary.
(in the Jewish calendar) the first month of the year according to biblical reckoning and the seventh month of the civil year, usually falling within March and April
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
According to encyclopedia excerpts, Nisan In the Hebrew calendar is the first month of the ecclesiastical year, called the “first of the months of the year” (Book of Exodus 12:1-2), “first month” (Ex 12:14), and the month of Aviv (Ex 13:4) בְּחֹ֖דֶשׁ הָאָבִֽיב ḥōḏeš hā-’āḇîḇ).
According to the Book of Esther, it is called Nisan. It is a month of 30 days. Nisan usually falls in March–April on the Gregorian calendar.
The seasons indicate that fall and autumn are the times when crops are harvested, and winter is when everything dies. Spring is the season when everything begins to spring to life. Spring is observed in the months of March, April, and May, which are in the month of Nisan. This makes a lot of sense as to why it was originally the correct New Year’s Day and not the current one that falls in the season of the winter.
Even the Babylonian people of ancient Babylon, whom the Most High God repeatedly rebuked in scripture, had an 11th day new year festival in March. They considered it to be the oldest new year festival, and this dated back to 2000 BC. So, if the babylonians who practiced all kinds of perditions could celebrate their New Year’s Day in the month of March, the question that comes to mind is where did the January 1st new year come from?
How it all started: from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar
Before the Gregorian calendar came into existence, there was the Julian calendar, also known as the Old Style calendar. It was a dating system that Julius Caesar created to change the Roman republican calendar. In the 40s BCE, the Roman civic calendar was three months ahead of the solar calendar. Caesar, advised by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, introduced the Egyptian solar calendar, taking the length of the solar year as 365 1/4 days.
If we look at the Julian calendar, all 12 months have either 30 or 31 days, except for February, which contains 28 days in common (365 day) years and 29 in every fourth year (a leap year, of 366 days) days.
The Julian calendar did not have February 29 and leap years repeated February 23. Caesar increased the days to 46 BCE so that they contained 445 days, as part of an effort to align the civic and solar calendars. The calendar was not established in smooth operation until 8 CE because of misunderstandings.
Sosigenes had overestimated the length of the year by 11 minutes 14 seconds, and by the mid-1500s, this error had changed the dates of the seasons by about 10 days from Caesar’s time.
Pope Gregory XIII’s reform, which was announced in 1582, brought the calendar back to the seasonal dates of 325 CE, an adjustment of 10 days.
Read More: How Ancient Babylonian Religion is still practised today in the Catholic Church
Who decided to make New Year’s Day to be January 1st
The change from New Year’s Day to January 1st was not originally initiated by Pope Gregory XIII. The Roman king Numa Pompilius revised the Roman republican calendar to replace March as the first month of the year. He chose it because January was named after his pagan deity Janus, the Roman god of all beginnings. Some sources suggest that Numa also created the month of January. However, there is evidence that January 1 was not formally declared the start of the Roman year until 153 BCE.
To expand on my point further, Julius Caesar made extra refinements in 46 BCE, but the Julian calendar, as it became known, kept January 1 as the year’s opening date. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the use of the Julian calendar spread. Following the fall of Rome in the fifth century CE, many Christian countries changed the calendar to reflect their religion. March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation) and December 25 (Christmas) became common New Year’s Days.
The problem began when it became clear that the Julian calendar needed to be changed because of a mistake about leap years. Several centuries later, the cumulative effect of this error caused various events to take place at the wrong time of year. It also presented concerns when determining the date of another pagan festival, Easter.
This was when Pope Gregory XIII’s name was incorporated into the history of January New Year’s Day. He was responsible for consolidating the Roman king Numa Pompilius tradition by re-instituting January 1st as the permanent New Year’s Day in 1582, with the introduction of a revised calendar. The Gregorian calendar created by pope Gregory not only solved their issue with leap years, but also restored January 1st as the start of the new year. This was like killing two birds with one stone.
Pope Gregory XIII’s Gregorian calendar was adopted throughout the world over the next few centuries, first in Catholic countries and then in Protestant countries in the Western Christian world.
Italy, France, and Spain were among the first countries to accept the new calendar, but it took a long time for Protestant and Orthodox countries to do so. In 1752, Great Britain and its American colonies also began to use the Gregorian calendar. Before then, they celebrated New Year’s Day on March 25. This is the biggest deception that was kept from everyone.
During the course of time, non-Christian countries began to use the Gregorian calendar. China (1912) is a notable example, though it continued to celebrate the Chinese New Year according to a lunar calendar. Several other countries that adhered to the Gregorian calendar also maintained their traditional or religious calendars. Not every country adopted the Gregorian calendar. Ethiopia, for example, celebrates its New Year (known as Enkutatash) every September.
Pope Gregory the 13th
The Pope Gregory XIII era also saw the adoption of December 25th as the birthday of Jesus and January 1st as the new year, since it had to follow the seven days after the birth of Christ doctrine. Which, by ancient Hebrew custom, was the seventh day of Christ’s circumcision.
It will come as a surprise to many that Pope Gregory ordered all Jews to attend a Roman conversion sermon after every Friday night service in an effort to convert the Jewish people to Christianity. Moreover, a law was passed that required Jews to pay a token for each Christianity conversion sermon they attended. Failure to pay the fee or attend the conversion sermon would result in a death sentence. This was the handwork of Pope Gregory, the man who made the January New Year’s Day become permanent all over the world. This is how the Jews were converted to Christianity.
Some years later, Pope Gregory ordered that all Jewish community scrolls and ancient books be removed and destroyed. The most interesting thing about this is that it happened on Pope Gregory’s January new year day. The entire historical literature of the ancient Jewish people, who lived in Rome at that time, was destroyed. This is why, today, we have so many false versions of the Ancient Jewish people’s history because the books containing them were burned. Now you know how we ended up with so many Romanized pagan holidays and Christianity.
Read More: The dark history of Santa Claus and why Christians shouldn’t celebrate Christmas
The January New Year’s Day and its connection with the pagan god Janus
The ancient Romans named January after their pagan god Janus, who had two faces, one looking forward and one looking back.
In the Janus temple in the Forum Holitorium, 12 altars were built for each month of the year to show that Janus was connected to the calendar. This is how we got the 12-month calendar. Janus was described by the Roman poet Martial as the father and progenitor of the years.
During the Roman era, Romans had a parade to honor their pagan god Janus on January 1st. They had a tournament of roses parade that symbolized the rose. Does that remind you of something for those who are familiar with American culture? The rose bowl celebration?
America’s New Year’s Day traditional feast includes the tournament of roses parade. It was first held in 1890. For nearly 130 years, the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade have been held in Pasadena, California, as well as in many other places around the world.
When the tournament of roses began in 1890, horses and riders were decorated with flowers and a procession was conducted through the local streets. During this period, fireworks were introduced for celebration. The fireworks used then were believed to have been developed by the Chinese, who claimed they were used to chase away evil spirits and bring good luck to them. Until this very day, it is no wonder why they use fireworks so often. Do you now understand that all the celebrations we do on New Year’s Day in January are similar to what was done during the Roman era?
Here is another piece of historical information to consider. In 153 BCE, the New Year’s resolution was adopted in Rome, the then pagan capital of the world. The Romans began to worship their pagan deity named Janus at the same time as they celebrated new years. A part of the New Year’s Day celebration was to make promises to start the year off right and get the approval of their gods, especially Janus. This was how New Year’s resolutions were introduced to the world.
During the celebrations, the Romans gave each other figs, dates, and honey to wish each other good luck in the coming year. In honor of Janus, the people would make sacrifices to him and have immoral parties. The practice of kissing on New Year’s Eve was inspired by the sexual orgies that were performed in ancient Rome during the new year celebration of Janus.
You should take note of this. The chief magistrates of the Republic were sworn into office on the first day of January in honor of Janus, from 153 BC. The Romans called them the Kalends. In some countries like America, the swearing in of some government officials is still being done in January.
The new consuls prayed to Janus, and priests made spelt with salt and a traditional barley cake called the ianual to their god.
If you study the pagan practices of the ancient Romans, you will see that we are simply replicating the same rituals as they did back then in ancient times. It seemed like all of this was meant to make people worship their pagan gods and religions again.
Read More: What Christ meant when he said you have to be born again
Conclusion
From this, I think that there appears to be a battle between man-made holidays made by men and the Divine Mandated holiday made by the Most High God. The world is taking sides with man-made holidays and rejecting the teachings of the Bible. It is like a battle between good and evil, where evil dominates.
The Most High God (YAH) had given the directive that the new year should begin in the month of Abib, or March/April on the Roman Gregorian calendar. Sadly, the Roman Catholic Church has once again Christianized another pagan holiday in January 1st, New Year’s Day. This holiday, among others, has become a tradition for everyone, which shows a clear lack of respect for the creator of the heavens and earth.
In conclusion, there are many Christian and non-Christian holidays that are inspired by ancient pagan customs. We must conduct thorough research in order to determine whether or not these holidays were truly ordained by the Most High God.
During this critical time, we must pray for the ability to discern between the truth and lies. Only this way can we demonstrate our allegiance to the Most High God. It’s now or never, for you can either be with the ways of the world or against it.
The Pagan Roman Empire never fell apart. It simply changed its name and hid behind Christianity.
I am Richard Inegbedion Jr. and as Alway’s it my opinion with facts.
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Sources: Britannica
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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