1 January was traditionally used as the first day of the year from the period of the use of the Roman calendar, which was believed to have been established by the legendary first King of Rome, Romulus. Originally featuring ten months of 30 or 31 days, this was revised into a 12 month calendar that roughly corresponded to the solar year. In 46BC, the calendar was amended by Julius Caesar, creating the Julian calendar. This continued to have 1 January as the first day of the year. However, although other states began to align their calendars to the new Julian, many maintained their old customs of beginning the year on different dates - the Alexandrian calendar used in Egypt for example started the year on 29 August.
By the Middle Ages, European nations had begun to accept 1 January as their official first day of the year, many of them doing so before the adoption of the new Gregorian calendar. One of the major outliers was England, and subsequently Great Britain, who kept their official start of the year as 25 March, which corresponded with the start of the legal year. By this system, the date would change from (for example) 24 March 1707 to 25 March 1708. It was the passing of the Calendar (New Style) Act in 1750, which mandated the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendars in Great Britain and its colonies, that also brought about the change to the start of the calendar year. The provisions of the Act came into force following "the last said day of December 1751", meaning that, as 1752 officially began on 1 January, 1751 officially lasted for 281 days. Despite this, some areas of the UK continue to celebrate the new year on dates based on earlier calendars, with the Gwaun Valley in Wales, and the island of Foula in the Shetlands still having new year celebrations on 13 January, which is the corresponding date from the Julian calendar.
Feb 05 2026, 7:48 AM
