New Years around the world. A happy day full of ambition and dreams for the New Year. A fresh start to do better, be better and make positive changes in our lives. A stamp collector might wish, for example, to organize the piles of stamps they have accumulated or perhaps to share unwanted stamps with others. Others may promise to stop buying until they sort through what they have…. nevermind, that’s just silly.

The celebration of New Year’s Day dates back to ancient times and has been observed in various ways and on different dates throughout history.

The earliest known record of New Year’s celebrations dates back to ancient Babylon, around 4,000 years ago. The Babylonians celebrated the New Year on the first new moon after the spring equinox, which usually fell in late March.

The ancient Egyptians also celebrated the New Year in the spring, around the time of the annual flooding of the Nile River, which marked the beginning of their agricultural season.

The ancient Greeks celebrated New Year’s Day on the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year, and was known as the festival of Kronia.

In ancient Rome, New Year’s Day was originally celebrated on March 1st, but was later moved to January 1st by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE when he reformed the Roman calendar.

The adoption of January 1st as New Year’s Day spread throughout the Roman Empire and eventually to other parts of the world. However, it wasn’t until the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 that January 1st became the universally recognized date for New Year’s Day.

Today, New Year’s Day is celebrated in many cultures around the world, often with fireworks, parties, and special traditions such as eating specific foods or making resolutions for the coming year.

For some. in the past, New Years isn’t a time of happiness. The day in fact, was just miserable for France’s King Louis XII who married Henry VIII’s sister Mary in 1514. Desperate for a son to carry on the name and sit on the throne the poor man exhausted himself to death trying.

Charles II of Navarre famous death also happened on New Years day. After falling ill, his doctor had him bound from neck to foot in cloth strips much like a mummy. The strips were soaked in brandy. A female attendant was there stitching the strips together and had placed her last stitch at the neckline. After knotting it she, instead of cutting off the excess, used a candle to burn off the tip setting the rest of the brandy soaked wrapping on fire. She ran from the room leaving him to burn to death in his bed.

Finally, the story of Saint Telemachus, also occured on January 1st. The original story by an early church historian has Telemachus in Rome trying to stop a gladiator fight to the death. When he interfered with the fight the crowd turned on him and stoned him to death.

Ronald Regan in 1984 told the story but ended it with a gladiator stabbing him and the crowd leaving the stadium in silence.

Either way it was a bad day for Telemachus, King Louis XII and Charles II. Let’s hope each and every New Years day is good for all of us and fills holes in all are albums!