While Western nations have celebrated the New Year for around 400 years, it was the ancient Babylonians who started the observance some 4,000 years ago. Circa 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year commenced with the first visible crescent of the moon after the vernal equinox — the first day of Spring — and extended over 11 days, each of which had its own unique celebration.

Conversely, January 1 has no astronomical significance; rather, the date was chosen arbitrarily by the Romans.

While the Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, subsequent emperors tinkered with the calendar to such an extent that it fell out of sync with the sun, so in order to correct the anomaly, the Roman senate decreed that January 1 would be the beginning of the new year. Nonetheless, the tinkering continued until 46 BC when Julius Caesar established what is known as the Julian Calendar — again confirming January 1 as the new year. However, in order to synchronise the calendar with the sun, Emperor Caesar was obliged to extend the previous year’s length to 445 days.

In the first centuries AD, although the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism.

Then, when Christianity grew and became more widespread, the early church rethought its edict and elected to hold its own religious observances concurrent with many of the pagan celebrations, New Year’s Day among them.

During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Year’s, and even today some denominations continue to mark January 1 not as the New Year but as the Feast of Christ’s Circumcision.

Western nations have celebrated January 1 for some 400 years.

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions harks back to the early Babylonians also. While today we popularly resolve to lose weight, stop smoking and/or drinking, and exercise, the early Babylonians vowed to return borrowed farm equipment.

As for associating a baby with the New Year, this tradition custom is traced back circa 600 BC when the Greeks celebrated the wine god Dionysus by annually parading around an infant in a basket as a way of symbolising the god’s rebirth as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

Although the early Christians denounced this practice as pagan, the popularity of the custom continued unabated until the Church finally agreed that Christians could indeed celebrate the new year with a baby, but strictly as a symbol of Jesus’ birth.

It was the Germans who brought the symbol of a baby draped with a New Year’s sash to early America, having used it as far back as the fourteenth century.

Various “good luck” customs and symbols have also become inextricably linked to New Year traditions. Those who thought that what one ate and did on New Year’s eve impacted upon one’s fate during the rest of the year began celebrating with family and friends in the name of good luck. Others believed that the type of first visitor on New Year’s Day would bring good luck, with a tall, dark-haired, handsome man crossing the threshold being considered especially lucky — a custom known in Scotland as “first-footing”.

Certain traditional foods eaten on January 1 are also considered good luck omens for the rest of the year. Depending on the culture and country, these include: anything which is ring-shaped, black-eyed peas and ham, any meat from a pig, cabbage leaves, and rice.