Why doesn't the New Year start on 25th December?

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I never thought of it like that but sure, why not?
During those times when I have a lot of idle thought time, I've often wondered why a new year doesn't start as close as possible to the Spring Equinox. To me spring is the time of year for new beginnings so why not have the new year begin then as well. The new year would not be March 21 but that day would become January 1 and the current calendar would be moved accordingly.
Good question....Show more

i'm sure there must be a good answer to this, however, i have no clue; i do know that Dec. 25th is not really the birthday of "JC", it was just a date picked by "whoever" and then it was later determined that this could not be correct, due to climate, etc.; perhaps 1-1-00 was chosen as a "starting" date for A.D. calendar for the simple fact of ease, similar to time on a clock, as in the beginning of a day is 00:00...Show more

Because it takes 365 and 1/4 days for the earth to revolve around the sun, but we only count 365 days a year and every 4th year, we add an extra day to make up for it. So on the 356th day [or the next day...w/e] it is the beggining of a new year because the earth is starting another lap around the sun. Scientists and other people weren't considering religion when coming up with this....Show more

the start and end of the year in the current calendar predate the birth of jesus, it's from the roman calendar that was in use at the time. the calendar's been modified several times, but the beginning and end of the year are as they were in ancient rome.

dec 25th was likely picked as the birthdate of jesus to help supplant the previous saturnalia festival which occured at the same time of year, when the roman empire shifted from its old religion to christianity....Show more

Good point.Because the year doesn't officially end on the 25th it oficially ends on the last day of the new year....Show more