New Year

[Munden]

Following on from an earlier query. If the New Year used to be celebrated on March 25th did the year number change as well. eg March 25th 1405 then next day 1406?

[Ewood27]

Yes.  Charles I was executed in January 1649 as we tell it now, but they would have called it 1648 at the time.  To avoid confusion, genealogists refer to dates before March 25th in years before 1752 as, say, January 1648/9.

[Octavius]

Roman years were identified by the names of the two consuls elected for that year. For historical purposes, years were numbered from the traditional date of the founding of Rome, 753 BC.

 

 

Roman years began in January, as do ours, but somehow the habit arose of beginning the year with the vernal equinox, in March (this was also the beginning of the year in the ancient lunisolar calendars). The Gregorian calendar began the year with January again. Until the Gregorian calendar became adopted in Protestant as well as Catholic countries, the confusion of the beginning of the year and the shift of days brings excitement to historical dating.

 

The origin of the numbering of our years was arbitrary, the work of a superstitious, bumbling ecclesiastic, and arising sometime in the fourth century. Whether there was year zero or not has nothing to do with the question. Usually the year before 1 AD is called 1 BC, but astronomers call it year 0. 1 January 2000 is the day the year changes from 1999 to 2000, but nothing else. 1 January 2001 is equally devoid of significance, being the start of the 2000th year after some arbitrary year. The greatest influence of the year 2000 is its effect on bad computer programs.