Why Did the Year Begin in March Over Two Millennia Ago?

March is the month we associate with Martisor, with the arrival of warmer days and preparations for plowing and sowing, but two millennia ago this month was the first of the year.

Specifically, March was the first month in the Roman calendar and the third in the Gregorian and Julian calendars.

But March was for a few centuries, during the time of the Romans, the first month of the year. The first calendar created during the Roman Republic, over 25 centuries ago, was only 10 months old and had 304 days 31 days) because the winter months were simply not counted or named.

That calendar began in March (named after the god of war, Mars) and ended in December, the tenth month, which was the time of harvest in Rome.

This calendar did not last long, because in the 7th century BC, during the time of the second Roman king, Numa Pompilius, the calendar was modified by adding 50 days and creating two new months: January (from the god Janus) and February (from a festival of purification called February).

Both months were 28 days. Janus was the god of the door, of the feasts and rites of passage, and the phenomena of transition.

Each year was related to the year considered the first by the Romans: 753 BC, the year of the founding of Rome. From the year 509 BC when the republic was founded, until the request of the Empire, in the year 27 BC, the Romans, gaining new knowledge, changed the calendar several times.

Changes were needed because this calendar was based on the movement of the Moon, but as the lunar cycle is 29.5 days, there were more and more desynchronizations over the years compared to the seasons that the calendar itself was meant to mark.

To remove at least some of the confusion, a month called Mercedonius was added every 2–3 years, but this was not done constantly and more confusion arose.

A big problem was that 21–22 centuries ago the calendar was not communicated publicly, but was applied and announced by the priests of the temples who decided when the festivals and holidays would be held and on what day it could or could not be done. business.

Everything changed in 45 BC when Julius Caesar called for a heavily revised version of the calendar, and it was created by a mathematician and astronomer named Sosigenes of Alexandria who proposed a calendar 365 days a year and one year. leap once every 4 years.

The new calendar, although underestimating the length of the year with an error of 11 minutes, was synchronized with the "flow" of the seasons and, especially, came with another super-novelty: the year began on January 1, the day the consuls began their term.

The astronomical year is 11 minutes longer than the average Julian year, which leads to the accumulation of one day difference in 128 years.

In that calendar the seventh month was called September, the eighth was October, and the ninth was November. The names remain, even though two months have been added, and September, for example, is no longer the seventh month, but the ninth.

It must be said that although the Julian calendar has been in force for centuries - and is still in force in some countries - the date of the New Year has been celebrated not only on January 1 but also on other dates related to various Christian or pagan holidays.

The greatest change in the application of the calendar was in 1582 when a major change was made to the Julian calendar. The introduction of the Gregorian calendar was necessary because, in the case of the Julian calendar, the average year was slightly longer than the astronomical year, making the spring equinox slightly move back into the calendar year.