Happy New Year

[CJ Krause]

Happ

[oldbandnerd]

Thanks for the card Charlie . It's good to have you back . I hope you have better year this year too .

[tubatooter1940]

Happy New Year, gang! Things are looking better around here already.
Looking forward to playing Pardi Gras on Jan 14th 7 to 8:15 P.M. at the Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
www.johnreno.com/

[Dylan King]

A History of New Years

In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as
New Year's day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two
faces, one looking forward and one back. Caesar felt that the month named
after this god ("January") would be the appropriate "door" to the year.
Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent
routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee. Eyewitnesses say
blood flowed in the streets. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New
Year by engaging in drunken orgies -- a ritual they believed constituted a
personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was
ordered by the gods.

As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the
Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period
most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the
beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day
commemorates the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would be
impregnated by G-d and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)

After William the Conqueror (AKA "William the Bastard" and "William of
Normandy") became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the
English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1. This
move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus' birthday (December 25) would
align with William's coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus'
circumcision (January 1) would start the new year - thus rooting the English
and Christian calendars and his own Coronation). William's innovation was
eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world
and returned to celebrating New Years Day on March 25.

About five hundred years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (AKA "Ugo
Boncompagni", 1502-1585) abandoned the traditional Julian calendar. By the
Julian reckoning, the solar year comprised 365.25 days, and the
intercalation of a "leap day" every four years was intended to maintain
correspondence between the calendar and the seasons. Really, however there
was a slight inaccuracy in the Julian measurement (the solar year is
actually 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds = 365.2422 days). This
slight inaccuracy caused the Julian calendar to slip behind the seasons
about one day per century. Although this regression had amounted to 14 days
by Pope Gregory's time, he based his reform on restoration of the vernal
equinox, then falling on March 11, to the date had 1,257 years earlier when
Council of Nicaea was convened (March 21, 325 C.E.). Pope Gregory made the
correction by advancing the calendar 10 days. The change was made the day
after October 4, 1582, and that following day was established as October 15,
1582. The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian in three ways: (1) No
century year is a leap year unless it is exactly divisible by 400 (e.g.,
1600, 2000, etc.); (2) Years divisible by 4000 are common (not leap) years;
and (3) once again the New Year would begin with the date set by the early
pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.

On New Years Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under
pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion
sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On New Years
Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support
of a "House of Conversion" to convert Jews to Christianity. On New Years
1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the
Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.

Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 - supposedly
the day on which Jesus' circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and
the death of Judaism - was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue
and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.

The Israeli term for New Year's night celebrations, "Sylvester," was the
name of the "Saint" and Roman Pope who reigned during the Council of Nicaea
(325 C.E.). The year before the Council of Nicaea convened, Sylvester
convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem. At the
Council of Nicaea, Sylvester arranged for the passage of a host of viciously
anti-Semitic legislation. All Catholic "Saints" are awarded a day on which
Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint's memory. December 31 is
Saint Sylvester Day - hence celebrations on the night of December 31 are
dedicated to Sylvester's memory.

U.S. News and World Report December 23, 1996

I stayed home and practiced trumpet.