From Denny: Ever wonder about the history of the New Year celebration around the world? Ever wonder how we came to celebrate it on 1 January?
Ancient cultures celebrated at different times of the year
Scholars believe the earliest idea of a New Year celebration goes back at least about 4,000 years to Mesopotamia in about 2000 B.C. They celebrated their New Year around the time of mid-March when the vernal equinox occurred. The vernal equinox is when the sun crosses directly over the Earth's equator. When it happens in the Northern Hemisphere, like in America, it's called the vernal equinox. (When it happens in the Southern Hemisphere it's called the autumnal equinox.)
Trivia: The word "equinox" means "equal night." What happens when the sun is positioned over the Earth's equator is that day and night are about equal in length all over the world. Quite the odd phenomenon.
