1. The earliest known record of a New Year festival dates from about 2000 BCE.

2. For the early Greeks, the new year began with the spring equinox.

3. Though Roman republican calendar initially marked the new year on March 1, but changed the official date to January 1 after 153 BCE.

4. In early medieval times most of Christian Europe regarded the Feast of the Annunciation as the beginning of the new year.

5. The Jewish religious calendar marks January 1 as the beginning of the new year.

6. The Gregorian calendar restored January 1 as New Year’s Day.

7. According to the Muslim calendar, the new year begins in the month of Muharram.

8. The Chinese New Year is celebrated officially for a month beginning in late March or early April.

9. The Romans derived the name for the month of January from their god Juno.

10. In the English-speaking West, the Scottish ballad “Auld Lang Syne,” revised by poet Lord Byron, is often sung on New Year’s Eve.