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Who Decided When the New Year Starts? | A Surprising History for Kids · The Curious Kidcast | Fun Facts and Curious Questions

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Hey there, curious minds. Have you ever wondered why we
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all celebrate New Year's Day on January 1st?
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I mean think about it, the Earth doesn't have a giant clock in
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space, right? There's no finish line painted
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around the sun with a banner saying congratulations, you made
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it, here's a trophy. So who actually decided when the
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new year starts? Was there some big meeting
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thousands of years ago where someone raised their hand and
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said I vote for January 1st because that's when I get new
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socks? Did someone flip a coin?
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Throw a dart at a calendar? Well buckle up because today
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we're going on a time travelling adventure to find out the
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answer. And trust me, it involves A2
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faced God, a river that floods on purpose, and the Romans
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messing everything up as usual. Curious kid cast?
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Here we go. Questions popping minds will
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blow big ideas. They're taking flight.
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Let's explore, feel the lights. Why, what, where and how.
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Big answers, We'll find them now.
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Curious minds. The world will come.
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Ask away. Let's bring it home.
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Welcome to the Curious Kid Cast, where we answer the questions
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that make your brain itch. Now you're probably wondering,
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who's this new guy with the funny accent?
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Well, I'm Charlie Odwell and I'm extremely excited to be learning
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and sharing the answers to your weird and wonderful questions
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over this next season of the Curious Kid Cast.
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Andy is still working hard in the background on all the mind
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blowing information. So are you guys ready?
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Let's dive in. First things first, we need to
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talk about what a year actually is.
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And no, it's not just that thing that makes you one year older,
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slightly taller, and weirdly, somehow worse at remembering
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where you put your shoes. A year is the time it takes for
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Earth to travel all the way around the sun.
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That journey takes about 365 days plus a little bit extra,
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which is why we have leap years where February gets an extra day
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and everyone born on February 29th only gets a real birthday
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every four years. Tough luck, February 29th,
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babies. Now here's the thing.
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The Earth doesn't come with instructions.
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There's no manual that says congratulations, you've
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completed one orbit around the sun.
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Please collect your free T-shirt.
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There's no cosmic referee blowing a whistle going.
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That's it. Years over, everyone go home.
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Humans had to figure out how to keep track of time all by
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themselves. And let me tell you, we made it
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way more complicated than it needed to be.
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We're talking ancient Rome level complicated.
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Thousands of years ago people didn't have smartphones with
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calendar apps. I know, absolutely shocking they
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couldn't just ask Siri what day it was.
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They didn't even have regular calendars hanging on their cave
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walls. Instead, they watched nature
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like it was the most interesting TV show ever invented.
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They noticed the sun came up and went down like clockwork.
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The moon changed shape like it was going through different
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phases of a haircut, from bald to full mullet and back to bald
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again. Seasons came and went.
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Plants grew, died, and grew again.
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It was like nature's own reality show, except nobody got voted
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off the island. These patterns were super
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important because they helped people survive.
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Knowing when winter was coming could mean the difference
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between having food or spending three months eating tree bark
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and pretending it was delicious. Spoiler alert, tree bark is not
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delicious. So people started asking really
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important questions like when should we plant crops?
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When should we hunt? When's a good time to throw a
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party? And most importantly, when
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should we tell everyone it's a new year so we can all pretend
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we're going to start exercising? The moon was one of the first
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time keepers from Earth. The moon looks like it changes
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shape from a tiny slavery, like a fingernail clipping in the
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sky, to a full circle and back again.
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This takes about 29 1/2 days, which became what we call a
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month. In fact, the word month actually
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comes from the word moon. Mind officially blown?
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It's like finding out the breakfast means breaking your
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fast. Or that Firefly is called that
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because it's literally a family that lights on fire.
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OK, that last one isn't true, but it should be.
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Many early calendars were based on the moon, and honestly, it
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seemed like a pretty good system.
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Just look up count the moon shapes.
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Boom, you've got a calendar. Easy peasy.
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But then, dramatic plot twist, there was a problem.
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A big mathematical, headache inducing problem.
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See, the moon and the sun don't exactly agree with each other.
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They're like siblings who can't decide what to watch on TV.
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If you count months using the moon, 12 moon cycles equals
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about 354 days. But a solar year?
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Earth going around the sun? 365 days?
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That's an 11 day difference. If you only follow the moon,
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your calendar slowly drifts away from the seasons like a shopping
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cart with a wonky wheel. After a few years, your summer
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festival might happen in the middle of winter.
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Imagine trying to have a beach party in a snowstorm, everyone
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showing up in swimsuits and sunglasses while it's snowing.
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Super awkward. So different cultures made
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different choices. Some followed the moon, some
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followed the sun, some tried to follow both, which probably gave
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everyone a massive headache and made party planning absolutely
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impossible. And This is why different
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calendars exist even today. It's like how some people
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measure things in feet and others use meters.
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We just can't all agree on anything.
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Now here comes the really surprising part that's going to
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make your brain do a backflip. For most of history, the new
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year didn't start on January 1st.
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I know, right? Different cultures started their
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new year on different days based on seasons, farming, religious
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events, or just whenever someone important said, you know what,
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today feels like a good day for a new year.
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Let's travel back over 4000 years to ancient Mesopotamia,
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which is in modern day Iraq. These folks had one of the
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earliest New Year celebrations and they threw it in the spring
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right when crops started to grow.
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Makes sense, right? New plants, new life, warmer
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weather after being cold all winter, flowers popping up
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everywhere. It was like nature hitting the
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giant reset button. Their New Year festival lasted
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11 days, 11 whole days. That's like having your birthday
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party for almost 2 weeks straight.
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These people knew how to party. I bet they ran out of cake by
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day three. Meanwhile, over in ancient
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Egypt, they did things completely differently because
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apparently nobody could just agree on anything.
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The Egyptians started their new year when the Nile River
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flooded. Now before you say wait Charlie,
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floods are bad. That's when your basement fills
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with water and your stuff gets ruined.
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You should know that this flooding was actually amazing
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for them. It watered their crops, left
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rich soil behind, and helped food grow.
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The flood usually happened around late July.
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So for Egyptians, New Year meant yay, the river is rising, which
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means food is coming and we won't starve.
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Not quite as catchy as Happy New Year, but definitely more
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practical. Plus, I bet their New Year's
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resolutions were way more interesting than ours.
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This year I promised to build a bigger pyramid.
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Then we come to ancient Rome and oh boy, buckle up, because this
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is where things get messier than a food fight in a spaghetti
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factory. The Romans originally had a
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calendar with only ten months, and their year began in March.
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And this is where it gets really interesting.
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Ever wondered why September, October, November, and December
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have those names? Well, Sept means 7, 6th means 8,
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Nov means 9, and DAC means 10 in Latin.
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But wait, hold on a second. Those aren't the 7th, 8th, 9th,
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and 10th months. They're the 9th, 10th, 11th, and
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12th months. What happened?
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Did the Romans forget how to count?
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Did they flunk math class? Nope.
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The Romans added two more months, January and February,
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and eventually moved the start of the year around like they
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were rearranging furniture. It's like if someone came to
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your house while you were at school and moved your bed to
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where your desk used to be and your desk to where your closet
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used to be. Confusing and kind of annoying.
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Thanks a lot, Romans. So why January?
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Well, January is named after Janus, a Roman God who had two
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faces. And no, he wasn't some kind of
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ancient super villain with a weird mutation.
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He wasn't the bad guy in a gladiator movie. 1 face looked
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backward at the past and one face looked forward to the
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future. Perfect for a new year, right?
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It's like looking at where you've been and where you're
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going at the same time, which would be super useful when
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you're walking, but probably also give you motion sickness.
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Janus was the God of beginnings, endings, doors, and transitions.
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Basically, he was the God of new stuff and change, and probably
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also awkward goodbyes. In 153 BC, the Romans decided
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the year should start on January 1st.
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But here's the hilarious part. It wasn't because of fireworks
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or making promises to eat more vegetables or any of that fun
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stuff. It was mainly for political
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reasons. New government officials started
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their jobs on that day. Yup.
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The reason we celebrate New Year on January 1st is basically
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because of ancient Roman paperwork and boring meetings.
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How exciting. Congratulations everyone, it's a
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new year. Please fill out these forms in
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triplicate. I bet those parties were
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thrilling. But even after the Romans chose
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January 1st, not everyone listened.
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You know how it is, someone makes a rule and everyone just
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kind of does their own thing anyway.
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Like when your teacher says no running in the halls and
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everyone speed walks instead. In 45 BC Julius Caesar, you
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might have heard of him. Pretty famous guy, ruled Rome,
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got stabbed a bunch of times, had a salad named after him even
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though he probably never ate it, stepped in and said enough of
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this nonsense, we're doing this my way.
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He introduced the Julian calendar, which was based on the
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sun. It had 365 days and a leap year
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every four years. January 1st officially became
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the start of the year. Finally some order.
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Finally everyone could agree on something, but there was still a
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tiny problem. And I mean tiny.
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Like microscopic. Like, smaller than the crumbs at
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the bottom of a chip bag. The Julian calendar was off by
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about 11 minutes each year. You might think, Charlie, 11
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minutes is nothing. That's less time than it takes
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to eat lunch. That's barely longer than a
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YouTube video. But here's the thing, and this
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is important. Those minutes add up like coins
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in a Piggy Bank. Over hundreds of years, seasons
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slowly drifted out of place. By the 1500s, spring was
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arriving earlier on the calendar than it should.
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Nature and the calendar were having a full on argument.
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Spring was showing up to the party early, like that one
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friend who always arrives 20 minutes before everyone else.
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So. So in 1582, Pope Gregory the
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13th, not to be confused with Pope Gregory the 12th or 14th,
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there were a lot of Pope Gregory's.
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Apparently it was a popular name.
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He introduced a new and improved calendar called the Gregorian
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Calendar. This is the calendar most of the
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world uses today. To fix the problem they actually
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skipped some days. Just deleted them.
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Imagine going to bed on October 4th and waking up on October
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15th. Where did the other 10 days go?
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Did I sleep through them? Did they get stolen?
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They also adjusted leap years and got the seasons lined up
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again. January 1st date is New Year's
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Day. Not everyone adopted it right
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away though. Some countries were like Nah
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we're good with our old calendar thanks.
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We don't trust this new fangled Pope Gregory calendar, but
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eventually it became the global standard.
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Wondered. Probably because people got
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tired of the confusion. Now.
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Now you might be wondering, do all cultures celebrate New Year
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on January 1st today? And the answer is Nope, not even
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close, not by a long shot. The Chinese New Year is based on
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the moon and happens somewhere between late January and
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February, which makes it a moving target.
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Good luck planning in advance. It celebrates family luck and
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new beginnings. Plus there are Dragons,
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fireworks, red envelopes with money in them, and dumplings.
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The Islamic New Year is also based on a lunar calendar, and
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it actually moves earlier each year, which must make planning
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birthdays really interesting. It's a time for reflection and
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thinking about your life and how you can be better, which is way
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more meaningful than just making a resolution to organize your
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closet. The Jewish New Year, called Rosh
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Hashanah, is celebrated in autumn.
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It's a time for thinking about the year ahead, reflecting on
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your actions and eating apples dipped in honey.
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Delicious and meaningful. Why don't more New Year
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celebrations involve dipping fruit in honey?
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We should all adopt this tradition immediately.
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And the Persian New Year, called Naurus, is celebrated at the
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spring equinox. That's when day and night are
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exactly the same length, like the universe is perfectly
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balanced. It marks rebirth and renewal,
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which makes perfect sense for spring, when everything's
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turning green and flowers are blooming and birds are singing.
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Way better than celebrating in the middle of winter when it's
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dark at 4:30 in the afternoon and everyone's wearing 7 layers
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of clothing. Each of these celebrations makes
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sense in its own way. There's no right or wrong
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answer. It all depends on what matters
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to your culture, what season you like best, and probably what
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kind of food you want to eat at your party.
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So here's the big answer to the question.
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No single person decided when the new year starts.
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It wasn't like some ancient king woke up 1 morning, stretched,
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yawned and declared January 1st. It is everyone I've spoken.
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Now bring me my breakfast. Instead, it was shaped by
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nature, farming, religion, politics, astronomy, and a whole
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lot of trial and error. Basically thousands of years of
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humans trying to figure things out and sometimes getting it
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wrong before getting it right. We're still doing that today.
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By the way, January 1st is a human agreement, not a rule of
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the universe. The Earth doesn't know it's New
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Year's Day. The Earth is just spinning
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around, minding its own business.
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The sun isn't celebrating. The sun is just doing its
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regular sun thing, being hot and bright.
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The moon isn't counting down. The moon doesn't even have a
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mouth. We are.
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We decided this. We made it up.
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And honestly, that's pretty cool when you think about it, even
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though it's kind of made-up. New Year feels powerful, doesn't
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it? That's because humans love fresh
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starts. We love clear lines between
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before and after, like chapters in a book.
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We love the feeling of turning a page and starting something new,
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even though technically nothing changes except the number we
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write on our homework. A new year gives us a chance to
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say this is the beginning of something new.
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And this time I'm definitely going to clean my room.
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And that's something worth celebrating, no matter what date
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you pick. Even if you never actually clean
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your room. All right curious minds, it's
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time for the Curious Kid Cars quiz.
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Now with 100% more multiple choice options, I'm going to ask
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you 3 questions about what we just learned and I'll give you 3
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possible answers for each one. You'll have 5 seconds to pick
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your answer after each question. No cheating by asking your smart
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speaker. Ready.
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Here we go, question one. The ancient Romans had a God
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with two faces who was perfect for New Year because one face
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looked back and one looked forward.
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What was his name? Was it a Jason, B Janus or C
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Gerald? The answer is B Janus if you
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said Gerald. I appreciate your creativity,
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but no the Romans did not have a 2 faced God named Gerald.
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That would have been amazing though.
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Question 2. Why did the ancient Egyptians
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start their new year when the Nile River flooded?
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Was it A because they loved swimming, B because floods
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brought water and soil that helped crops grow, or C because
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they were trying to avoid doing homework?
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The answer is B because the flood brought water and rich
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soil that helped their crops grow.
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It meant food was coming, which is definitely worth celebrating
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if you picked C. Nice try, but homework wasn't
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invented yet. Lucky ancient Egyptians question
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3. This is a tricky 1, so think
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carefully. Julius Caesar's calendar was off
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by 11 minutes each year over hundreds of years.
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What problem did this cause? Was it A everyone showed up late
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to parties, B pizza delivery took forever, or C seasons
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drifted out of place on the calendar?
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The answer is C Season slowly drifted out of place on the
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calendar. By the 1500s, spring was showing
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up earlier than the calendar said it should.
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Time and nature were having a disagreement, and nature was
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winning. If you said A or B.
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Those are also problems, but not calendar related ones.
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And here's one final curious question for you to think about
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on your own time. If you were in charge of the
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whole world and you could pick any day to start the new year,
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when would you choose? On your birthday so you'd get
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double presents on the first day of summer vacation?
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The day school starts so you could pretend it's a fresh
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start? When it snows for the first
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time? When you find money on the
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ground? There's no wrong answer.
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Maybe the best new year is the one that feels right to you.
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Just make sure it involves cake. All good celebrations involve
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cake. Thanks so much for joining me on
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the Curious Kid cast today. I hope you learned something
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cool about why we celebrate New Year on January 1st, even though
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it's basically random and was decided by ancient Roman
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bureaucrats doing paperwork. If you enjoyed this episode and
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thought it was funnier than watching a Penguin try to fly,
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make sure to share it with your friends and subscribe so you
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never miss an adventure. And hey, if you have a curious
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question you'd like me to answer, like why do we park in
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driveways and drive on parkways? Or why is it called a building
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when it's already built, head over to our website at
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curiouskidcast.com and send it in.
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Who knows, maybe your question will be featured in our next
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episode and I'll mispronounce your name in front of thousands
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of people. Just kidding.
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Until next time, stay curious. Keep asking questions.
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See you next time, curious minds.
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Hey, we'll let. Your questions rise.
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Lift them up to the endless sky. Everyone is as far so bright.
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Curious. Kick ass, Ignite the light.