New Year's Celebration | Tourist Calendar of Serbia

All cultures that use the calendar celebrate the arrival of the new year symbolically as a holiday marking the change of seasons, the departure of the old, and the beginning of a new period. However, January 1st has not always been established as the start of the new year.

The celebration of New Year, originally a pagan custom from an ancient sun cult, dates back 2,000 years before the Common Era. The earliest written records of New Year's celebrations point to ancient Babylon, an area of former Mesopotamia, where the inhabitants celebrated the new year in mid-March, during the spring equinox. The celebration lasted for 11 days. It was precisely this Babylonian New Year celebration that paved the way to Rome.

Old Rome

In the early calendar of the Roman Empire, March 1st was marked as the start of the New Year since the Roman calendar had 10 months, with March being the first month. According to written sources, the first January New Year's celebration took place in 153 BCE, but in 46 BCE, Julius Caesar introduced a new solar calendar. With Caesar's calendar, January 1st was designated as the beginning of the year.

The shift of the New Year celebration from March to January was also planned to avoid coinciding with the start of the civil year. In ancient Rome, New Year's celebrations were called "Kalends" and were celebrated with a rich feast, congratulations, and the exchange of gifts.

Today, New Year's is traditionally celebrated in Rome with a feast featuring the main dish of cooked pork sausage and lentils. This custom originates from ancient Rome, and it is believed that pork symbolizes good health, while lentils represent luck and money. After midnight, Romans throw away old things, clothes, and small pieces of furniture out of the window, creating space for new things.

Middle Ages

In 567, January 1st was abolished as the start of the new year. In medieval Europe, the celebration of the new year was considered an unchristian act that involved remnants of old, pagan customs, so the Council of Wise Men decided to abolish it. The celebration of the new year continued in some parts of Europe but on different dates. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, the Christian holiday of Christmas was considered the start of the year.

It was not until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar that January 1st once again became the official beginning of the civil and liturgical new year. This proclamation applied only to Roman Catholic countries. Orthodox Christians and Protestants had to wait for another period to adopt this date as the start of the new year.

Today, most of the world celebrates the New Year at the same time, having adopted the Gregorian calendar. However, Muslims, Chinese, and Jews use the lunar calendar, so the date of the New Year constantly changes for them.

New Year in Serbia

With the official adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1919, the former Kingdom of SHS established January 1st as the first day of the New Year for Serbs. Since then, it has been celebrated as a national holiday in our country.

Interestingly, before World War II, the beginning of the new year was hardly celebrated. If there were any cases, it was usually marked modestly with a fasting lunch. The arrival of New Year's celebrations in all households of former Yugoslavia is associated with socialism and gained significance thanks to television. New Year's was declared a holiday in Serbia in 1955, which marked the beginning of the celebration as it is observed today.