New Year's Day also is strange because it is not a holiday that recognizes a religious, historic or patriotic event. But the strangest aspect of New Year's Day is that, unlike all other holidays, no one celebrates New Year's Day. Except for the Rose parade, some football games and reruns of the Twilight Zone, no one does anything on New Year's Day except eat too much.
The only celebrating that is going on is on New Year's Eve, the day before the holiday, and New Year's Eve is NOT a holiday.
So, why is New Year's Day a holiday, and why do people celebrate the day before, which is not a holiday. The truth is no one knows why we do this, except that humankind has always done it.
Of course, New Year's Day was not always January 1. In ancient times, the beginning of a year was determined by such events as the spring or autumn equinox or winter solstice. So, for example, in Egypt, about 2800 BC, the year started with the helical rising of Sirius, which coincided with the beginning of the Nile flooding.
New Year's was a time for some cultures to perform rituals to do away with the past and purify themselves for the coming year. Some extinguished fires they were using and started new ones. Celts were said to have built bonfires to send away evil spirits and to honor their sun god. In earlier times, Romans gave each other New Year's gifts of sacred tree branches. In later times, they gave gold covered nuts and coins depicting Janus, their god of gates, doors and beginnings. It must have been exciting to have received a gold nut.
So, it appears that the New Year's Day holiday and the New Year's Eve non-holiday are rooted in long standing pagan tradition. Since January was named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces--one looking backward and one looking forward--perhaps there is some logic to the New Year's holiday: a time for looking backward and forward.
Along that line, it may be a time for reflecting on something every one experiences--aging. Scientists are zeroing in on "molecular mayhem" within cells of the brain for clues to the mysteries of growing old.* For example, breakdowns of proteins in the brain may be a significant cause of aging. Another factor may be the disorganization of DNA bundles. In the brain, stem cells have walls to keep out cellular junk. When these walls weaken, the junk can enter to hinder stem cell production. Another protective brain wall is the blood-brain barrier which protects the brain from toxins in the blood. If that wall weakens, brain cell can break down.
Of course, if one were to dwell on the aging process on New Year's Day, the holiday could be disquieting. Maybe that is why people today celebrate New Year's Eve--a day to party as if youth is eternal; and why New Year's Day is a holiday--a quiet day to recover aching bones and scrambled minds from all that celebrating. Yes, perhaps we all are like Janus at New Year's time--a bit two faced.
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* Rosen, "All Bodies Don't Act Their Age",
Science News, December 26, 2015, p. 20
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