Welcome to Our History of Holidays in America Homeschool History Course

History of Holidays in American Homeschool History Course Sample

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History of Holidays in America

NEW YEAR’S DAY
JANUARY 1

New Year’s Day is the first day of the year, January 1st by the Gregorian calendar. All of the countries using the Gregorian calendar celebrate New Year’s Day as a public holiday, except for Israel. On the Julian calendar, New Year’s Day falls on the 14th of January and some Eastern Orthodox churches still celebrate New Year’s Day on the 14th .

January 1st has become an occasion for fireworks and other celebrations during the hours before midnight on December 31st, New Year’s Eve. Some countries do not allow fireworks to be burned, but that ban is sometimes lifted on this day in celebration of a new year. Many people also use this day to start a resolution or a goal, which they hope to accomplish by the end of the year. Some of these could include stopping smoking, losing weight, getting physically fit, or even running a marathon. New Year’s Day was originally observed on March 15th on the old Roman calendar until changed by two Roman consuls in 153 B.C. They moved it to January 1st for military reasons.

New Year’s Day was sometimes still celebrated in March, alongside other Christian holidays, even though the calendars ran from January to December in the Roman design. Many of the countries in Western Europe officially adopted January 1st as New Year’s Day even before they adopted the Gregorian calendar.

In the United States, people begin celebrating the new year on December 31, New Year’s Eve. Many people have parties, and sometimes masquerade balls, where guests dress up in costume and cover their faces with masks to hide their identity. According to an old tradition, guests unmask, or remove their masks, at midnight.