A QUESTION OF TIME by Veronica Smith

Welcome to the Gregorian Calendar New Year, which is only one of many calendars, old and new, from around the world. For example, Jewish New Year took place several months ago, marking their year 5786. Chinese Lunar New Year will not happen for another month and a half.

What you have just celebrated is commercial New Year! This is the reset point for international businesses and governments, so that they can all operate in sync together.

Did you “buy-in” to the cunning media hype?  Parties and fireworks? Persuading you to spend more money? Then congratulations! Now you know how a successful advertising campaign works!

There will be those of you, who argue that celebrating New Year’s Eve on 31st December is a long-standing tradition. Yet, compared to several other calendars, such as the ancient Mayan or Roman Julian, the Gregorian calendar is relatively new.  It was introduced by Pope Gregory 13th in 1582, on the advice of mathematicians and astronomers, who said that the older Julian calendar was incorrect and miscalculated days throughout the year. Even so, the Gregorian itself is not entirely accurate.

You see, man-made calendars are dependant upon variable starting points, such as where you live on the globe and your ethnic beliefs. For example, while Christmas and New Year  replaced much older Winter Solstice celebrations in the northern hemisphere, in the southern hemisphere, they are celebrating their Summer Solstice at that time.

To further refine / complicate things, calendars can be either solar-based (Equinoxes and Solstices) or lunar-based (Full Moon and New Moon).

Both types of calendars incorporate historical events, which are important to the culture that has developed it. Humans, being creatures of habit, create elaborate rituals, called “traditions”, which they use as memory aids around each event. Passover and Easter are good examples. Generation after generation slavishly follow their traditions, long after such rituals have ceased to be relevant, or even appropriate (such as cutting down dwindling forests to supply the Christmas Tree trade)!

So, let us update the Gregorian Calendar into the 21st century! What you celebrate on 31st December each year is the ending of one taxable spending year and the start of the next taxable spending year. I, for one, am not going to celebrate that!

ENDS  Veronica Smith, first published on 1st January 2026

#31stDecemberTraditionVersusReality #GregorianCalendar #NewYearCalendars