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Show I NEW YEAR DID NOT ALWAYS BEGIN ON JANUARY 1; ONLY CHRISTIANS SO OBSERVE IT A 1 I Tho New Tear began precisely Ht midnight, and almost everyone rlOW-a-dnvs. sees the New 1 f.ir In by general festivities and m.iny good resolutions, which are promptly forgotten on Jnn-un Jnn-un ry 2 . The festivities marking this occasion occas-ion are very ancient, and In old Saoc-oh Saoc-oh daye It was the custom to partako of a bowl of spiced ale, which was paused around with che expression of "Wasshael," which meant "to your health!-" Hence the origin of the Wassail or 'ne! bowl. We now keep New " ear on January the first, but the Chlneso, Jews. Turk and many others do not observe It on this day. Even Christian eountrlen have not always so observed It, the Romans began the year with the March Equinox. The later Teutonic atlons for a long time continued counting the beginning of the year from March 26. TIME CHANGED IX 1308 It was onlv In 1563, by an edict of Charles IX. that Franco changed tho time of the beginning of tho year to January first In 1600 Scotland made the same change, and England only did so In 1762. when tho Gregorlon system was adopted there. It will thus be seen that the New Year, observed on January first. Is relatively new, though we are accustomed to think that It dates back from tlmo lmmem-morlall lmmem-morlall 1c was Julius Caesar, In tho year of 4 6 B. C. who first reformed the cal-, endar aided by the Egyptian aatron- omer Eoslgenes. lie, made it a few minutes too long, and a second correction correc-tion was necessary" Pope Gregory! made certain changes in 15S2, A. D.. and additional minor changes weroj made later on, from the "old style" to the now style calendar" We now J employ the New Style. i After ho French revolution France decided to set up an entirely new order or-der of things. A new calendar was made. The Christian Era was wiped OUt, and was replaced by the now French era, beginning September 22, 1792 Instead of our wook of 7 days, a week of tn days was established In accordance with tho decimal system sys-tem the tenth day being sot aside . for rest. X SMI l UY BE VOXS Instead of the mythological names of the months, others deduced from tho prevailing seasons of the year were substituted. Everything waa to be based upon reason' Tho Notre D.ima was con-I con-I verted Into a "Temple of Reason" ; Mme. Momsro, the young beautiful wife of a Jacobin printer, was chosen to represent "Reason." And so It wen. The months were chosen and given French names which wero thought to I bo characteristic of them Thus Autumn Aut-umn had a Vintage month, a foggy 1 month, a sleety month. Winter, a , snowy month, a rainy month and a i windy month Spring: a budding month, a flowery month, and a pasture pas-ture month- Summer, a harvest month, a hot month and a irult month. Each month began somewhere between be-tween tho 18th and 22nd according to our reckoning. Thus the first month of the autumn trio began on September 22nd and lasted until October Octob-er 2 lit, etc. With tho restoration of a stable government gov-ernment In France, this calendar was repealed, and tho usual one substituted substi-tuted But. for a time, as wo have seen. New Year day did not begin on January the first In France, so late as the loft", century, and It does not begin on that date in non-Christian countries even today' |