Several beginnings of the year at the same time?

The new year begins on January 1. But there used to be up to six beginnings of the year, sometimes even several at the same time. The development of the names of the months is also exciting.

The ancient Romans and their «logical» month names

According to the old Roman calendar, the year began in March. To make things easier for the citizens, some of the Roman month names such as Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December had their origin in the Latin numbers quintus (for fifth month), sextus (sixth), septimus (seventh), octavus (eighth), nonus (ninth) and decimus (tenth) - always calculated from March. But today, of course, this is no longer accurate because, since Caesar's calendar reform, the year begins in January and September, for example, is no longer the seventh month, but the ninth.

Roman emperors allowed themselves a month of their own

For a long time, the fifth month was called «Quintilis» by the Romans. But after Julius Caesar's calendar reform in 46 BC, the month was given the name Julius (July). This in turn did not suit the later emperor Aurelius Commodus, who changed the name to Aurelius. In the end, however, the month was renamed Julius after his death. The Roman month of Sextilis had a similar fate. In 8 BC, the Senate decided to dedicate it to Emperor Augustus and rename it accordingly (our August). However, the reason for this was presumably that Sextilis directly followed Julius, who was named after Julius Caesar. You can't help but wonder whether the appropriation of a month's name by today's autocrats is still to come ...!

Because of the ancient Romans, we are now freezing at the beginning of the year

The ancient Roman year began with the month of March. But in the second century BC, the Romans moved the beginning of the year for military reasons. The consuls were also elected in March. And they were responsible for leading the troops in war. If war was decided, the consul had to raise an army. As it took a long time to raise the troops and march them in, it was only possible to react in the summer in the event of an emergency. The rulers therefore opted for a pragmatic solution: they simply brought forward the election date of the consuls and with it the beginning of the year to the first of January. This meant that they were more quickly prepared in the event of war.

Until the end of the 17th century, there were six different beginnings of the year

The Romans had set the beginning of the year on January 1, and Pope Gregory XIII and his Gregorian calendar also began the year on this day. However, not all countries adhered to this. According to chronicles, various New Year's days were in use in the Middle Ages, sometimes even several at the same time. Some celebrated it on December 25 with the birth of Jesus Christ. In France, it was customary to start the year at Easter until well into the 16th century. Elsewhere, New Year was celebrated on January 6 or at the beginning of spring on March 21. March 25 was also a possible New Year's Day. Innocent XII wanted to eliminate this chaos and in 1691 set the start of the year as January 1.