year 2023 Farewell and arrival of the new year i.e. 2024. New Year is being celebrated all over the world including India. For decades, the New Year starts at 12 midnight as soon as December 31 ends and January 1 begins. But perhaps you will be surprised to know that it has not always been like this. A few decades ago, neither did the New Year start from January 1 nor were there 12 months in the calendar. Rather, the calendar used to be only for 10 months.
Now the thing to think about is how the months got their names and from which month the new year used to begin. So let us tell you today what is the story behind naming the months in the English calendar and how 2 more months were later added to the calendar.
New Year used to start at this time, not January 1.
The calendar was in use in the Roman Empire in 45 BC. At the time when Numa Pompilus was the king of Rome, there used to be 10 months in the Roman calendar i.e. 310 days in a year and 8 days in a week. However, after some time Numa made changes in the calendar and made January the first month of the calendar. After this, after the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582 AD, celebrating the New Year started on 1 January.
Why is January considered the first month?
Actually, before 1582, the beginning of the new year was considered to be from the spring of March, but after this decision of Numa, the beginning of the year was considered to be from January. Let us tell you that the month of March was named after the Roman god Mars, who was considered the god of war.
Whereas January was named after the Roman god Janus, it was believed that Janus had two mouths. His front face was considered the beginning and his back face was considered the end. Numa chose Jonas, the god of beginnings, to begin the year, and thus January began to be celebrated as the first month of the year.
