New Year

The new year of many South and Southeast Asian calendars falls between April 13–15, marking the beginning of spring.

The early development of the Christian liturgical year coincided with the Roman Empire (east and west), and later the Byzantine Empire, both of which employed a taxation system labeled the Indiction, the years for which began on September 1.

The September 1 date prevailed throughout all of Christendom for many centuries, until subsequent divisions eventually produced revisions in some places.

Liturgical developments in Rome and Constantinople did not always match, although a rigid adherence to form was never mandated in the church.

By the time of the Reformation (early 16th century), the Roman Catholic general calendar provided the initial basis for the calendars for the liturgically oriented Protestants, including the Anglican and Lutheran Churches, who inherited this observation of the liturgical new year.

[16] In 45 BC, when Julius Caesar's new Julian calendar took effect, the Senate fixed January 1 as the first day of the year.

This civil new year remained in effect throughout the Roman Empire, east and west, during its lifetime and well after, wherever the Julian calendar continued in use.

In the Middle Ages in Europe a number of significant feast days in the ecclesiastical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church came to be used as the beginning of the Julian year: Over the centuries, countries changed between styles until the Modern Style (January 1) prevailed.

[31] September 1 was used in Russia from 1492 (A.M. 7000) until the adoption of both the Anno Domini notation and 1 January as New Year's Day, with effect from 1700, via December 1699 decrees (1735, 1736) of Tsar Peter I.