‘Miladi’ New Year
Janet Blake, Associate Professor, Department of Human Rights Law, Shahid Beheshti University
The inherent symbolism in passing from the old year to the new has characterised the ritual and ceremony around the New Year in Europe since Pagan times. New Year was first celebrated on 1 January in Rome ancient Rome, with the god Janus symbolizing a door through which one moved from the old year to the new one and who had two faces that looked back to the past and forwards to the future. When Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1572 in order to have more consistency around the dates of Easter, 1 January was named as New Year’s Day following the ancient Roman tradition. Most, Catholic countries adopted this, but Protestant countries such as Britain continued to celebrate the official New Year in late March until 1752, thus keeping their calendars closer to the Iranian one for new year.
Traditionally, the passing of the old year into the new one – known locally as Hogmanay – has been the main winter festival in Scotland and takes place on 31 December. The Celtic peoples, who settled in Scotland around 3,500 years ago, celebrated their new year with fire as they believed light and life sprang from death and darkness. Fire remains a central part of Hogmanay celebrations and in the fishing village of Stonehaven, in the northeast of Scotland, Grampian, a parade of 60 marchers wearing traditional dress and playing bagpipes and drums swirl balls of fire on wire ropes around their heads. Noise, in the form of church bells, ships horns in ports and banging on pots and pans is also associated with welcoming the new year.
Scotland is probably the most famous place for the celebration of the new year on 31 December and its most well-known song – Auld Lang Syne – that is sung as the bells strike midnight on that night was written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in the 18th century. In modern Scotland, it is traditional to visit your neighbours’ houses after the New Year has arrived at midnight, carrying a lump of coal as a symbol of the fireplace remaining lit for the coming year and with the phrase “long may your chimney smoke”. Traditionally, people hope that their first visitor will be tall and dark which will bring them good luck for the coming year. It is customary to provide hospitality to the visitors who arrive on your doorstep, including a special cake made of dried fruit. Also, in recognition of the possibilities of renewal, it is customary in many Christian countries to make a resolution, a promise to oneself or to others, to make a positive change in one’s life for the new year.
When Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1572 in order to have more consistency around the dates of Easter, 1 January was named as New Year’s Day following the ancient Roman tradition. Most, Catholic countries adopted this, but Protestant countries such as Britain continued to celebrate the official New Year in late March until 1752, thus keeping their calendars closer to the Iranian new year.