Not all countries or cultures celebrate New Year on January 1st. The Chinese, Egyptian, Jewish, Roman, and Mohammedan years all have different start dates. Chinese New Year starts on a different day each year. Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians celebrated their New Year about the middle of June. That was the time when the Nile River usually overflowed. January 1was recognized as New Year Day in the 1500's with the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar. The Julian Calendar places the New Year on January 14. The Jewish New Year, a feast day, is celebrated about the time of the fall equinox, in late September.
In ancient Rome, the first day of the New Year honored Janus, the god of gates, doors, beginnings and endings - the month of January, named after Janus, was originally called 'Januarius'. Janus had two faces - one which looked ahead to see what the new year would bring, and the other looked backward to see what happened during the past year. Ancient Romans celebrated New Year by giving gifts to friends and family members - some even gave gifts to Senators in exchange for favors!
In England, Druid priests celebrated their New Year on March 10. They gave branches of mistletoe to people for charms. Later, English people followed the custom of cleaning their chimneys on New Year Day. The English believed this brought good luck to the household for the coming year. The expression "cleaning the slate" came from this custom. It means making resolutions to correct faults and bad habits. People resolve to make themselves better in the New Year. It is still customary even today to make a list of New Year resolutions for the coming year.
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