How did the celebration of New Year's Eve begin?
Why is the beginning of a year placed in the middle of a dead winter?
And where did the many customs surrounding it originate?
MOST people carelessly assume that celebrating New Year's Eve is a Christian custom.
But did the practice of "waiting the old year out" really come from the Bible?
Is January 1 the true beginning of a new year? Who has the authority to determine when a new year begins?
An Ancient Pagan Custom
New Year's is one of the oldest and most universal of all pagan traditions! The custom of celebrating it has remained essentially unchanged for 4,000 years!
"There is scarcely a people, ancient or modern, savage or civilized," writes Theodor H. Gaster, in his definitive book New Year, "which has not observed it . . . in one form or another. Yet no other festival has been celebrated on so many different dates or in so many seemingly different ways."
In ancient Babylon, New Year's festivals were closely bound to the pagan feast called "Christmas" today. The little-known connection of New Year's with Christmas is made clear in our free booklet, The PLAIN TRUTH about CHRISTMAS! If you haven't read it before, write for it immediately.
When and how did New Year's celebrations originate? Who began the custom?
Notice the proof of history.
"Mesopotamia," writes Earl W. Count, "is the very ancient Mother of Civilization. Christmas began there, over four thousand years ago, as the festival which renewed the world for another year. The 'twelve days' of Christmas; the bright fires and probably the Yule log; the giving of presents; the carnivals with their floats, their merrymakings and clownings, the mummers who sing and play from house to house; the feastings; the church processions with their lights and song — all these and more began there centuries before Christ was born. And they celebrated the arrival of a new year!" (4000 Years of Christmas, pp. 20-21)
That is how it began. The celebration of New Year's began in ancient Babylonia in Mesopotamia. It was a pagan custom of ancient sun-worship 2000 years before the birth of Jesus.
The celebration of New Year's is never once commanded in the Bible. Jesus and the apostles never observed it. Moses forbade it!
Don't say "it doesn't matter." It does matter to God whether we adopt the customs of the heathen. Your Bible says, "Learn not the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:2).
A Pagan Roman Feast
The New Year's festivities that had originated in Babylon found their way to Greece and finally to Rome. The Romans called it "Saturnalia" — in honor of Saturn. Among them it was extremely popular — a time of revelings, drinking bouts, orgies — finally ending in HUMAN SACRIFICE!
"The first day of the Saturnalia shifted during the lifetime of Rome . . . it began around the middle of December . . . and continued until January first. In its midst was December twenty-fifth, the day, as the Romans calculated, when the sun was at its lowest ebb. . . ." (E.W. Count's 4000 Years of Christmas, page 28)
It was Julius Caesar, Emperor of pagan Rome, who instituted the New Year's festival on January first. In 46 B.C., Caesar adopted the Julian calendar. He transferred to the first of January ALL of the licentious customs surrounding the Roman Saturnalia!
Accepted by "Church Fathers"
But how did such a thoroughly pagan day ever insinuate itself into our modern "Christian" calendar?
Read the answer from church history — about 375 A.D. This is the period Emperor Constantine imposed "Christianity" on the Roman world.
"There were many immigrants into the ranks of the Christians by this time," writes Earl W. Count. "The Church Fathers discovered to their alarm that they were also facing an invasion of pagan customs. The habit of Saturnalia was too strong to be left behind. At first the Church forbade it, but in vain" (page 31).
Rather than resist the influence of pagan customs, the Catholic Church fathers compromised!
"The Church finally succeeded in taking the merriment, the greenery, the lights, and the gifts from Saturn and giving them to the Babe of Bethlehem. . . . The pagan Romans became Christians — but the Saturnalia remained!" (E.W. Count, page 31)
Modern Christians have gone a step further!
Rather than present a gift to Jesus Christ on the day they falsely assume to be His birthday, the world is busily trading presents among themselves! Christ has been not only forgotten at Christmas time, but is not so much as toasted amidst the partying of New Year's Eve!
During the Middle Ages many of the ancient Roman customs were maintained and augmented by the incoming heathen rites of the Teutonic peoples. It was during this period that the customary Yule log and mistletoe were added to the popular New Year's festivities. The Yule log is a carry-over from the bonfires of sun-worship, and mistletoe is a parasite used in Druid rites as a symbol of sex-worship!
As Teutonic customs were added, the date of New Year's celebrations was temporarily changed to March 25, to coincide with the Germanic spring rites of fertility.
Finally Pope Gregory reinstituted the ancient pagan Roman date of January first. He imposed it on the whole Western world in 1582 when his Gregorian calendar "reforms" were accepted. All Roman Catholic countries accepted this change at once! Sweden, Germany, Denmark and England, the strongholds of Druid customs, finally acquiesced to Rome in the 1700's!
The Modern Attitude of Compromise
Today, New Year's Eve has become a time for people to wallow in excesses of liquor! The modern attitude seems to be, "have a wild time on New Year's Eve, and turn over a new leaf on New Year's Day!"
New Year's resolutions are empty and meaningless, usually trifling matters of jest! Few people make a lasting change.
Most people seem to have convinced themselves that God is out of the picture for good. That God is not concerned with their modern revelings, drunken parties, and promiscuous behavior!
What does God have to say about New Year's? Does He condone observing a pagan festival? Practicing pagan customs in the name of Christ?
God Labels New Year's "PAGAN"!
God Almighty does not compromise!
Notice the Eternal's stern warning to Israel as they conquered the pagan nations of the promised land:
"Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying 'How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.' Thou shalt not do so unto the Eternal thy God: for every abomination to the Eternal, which He hateth, have they done to their gods. . . ." (Deut. 12:30-31)
What were the customs God hates and condemns in Deuteronomy? What are those pagan rites that are an abomination to Him?
These very rites and customs practiced in ancient Canaan and Syria included the New Year's festivals! From the ancient Canaanites the Greeks learned the same rites.
Greek God of WINE!
Theodor H. Gaster writes concerning the familiar "New Year's babe":
"Actually the New Year babe is far older than he looks. In ancient Greece, it was customary at the great festival of Dionysus to parade a babe cradled in a winnowing basket. This was taken to symbolize the annual (or periodic) rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility!" (New Year)
Who was this Dionysus?
None other than Bacchus — the god of wine! In his honor the Greeks held a festival called the "Festival of the Wine-Press" at the time which corresponds to our months of January-February!
Today more alcoholic beverages are consumed during the "holiday season" than at any other time of the year! New Year's Eve is noted for its licentious, wild, and wanton partying. People are deceived by riotous pagan holiday spirits — for the most part emanating from liquor bottles — all the while calling it "Christian"!