Fun Facts for the New Year

It's been a great year for math here at Mathnasium. We made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun! Before we launch the fireworks and celebrate the end of 2022, let's take this opportunity to learn something new about the tradition of New Year's Day with some fun facts.

1. The first New Year's celebration we know of dates back to 4000 BC in ancient Babylon. The Babylonian New Year happened in March, not January, marking the beginning of spring. Celebrations took the form of an eleven-day festival, marking the planting of new crops.
2. New Year's Day was officially marked as January 1st in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII when he created the Gregorian calendar, which we use today.
3. New Year's resolutions also began with the Babylonians. They made promises to start the new year off right and earn the approval of their gods.
4. The song we hear most often on New Year's, Auld Lang Syne, originates in Scotland. The title means "times gone by." The song first became an American tradition when bandleader Guy Lombardo performed it in New York City in 1929 during a New Year's Eve celebration.