About the New Year

By Victor M Fontane

Although the world generally celebrates the new year on January 1, imposed by the Christian church through Pope Gregory XIII as a modification and replacement of the Julian calendar, the real year actually starts with the solar year or lunar year. A solar year — the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun — lasts around 365 days and begins about 21 March of each Gregorian year and ends about 20 March of the next year. A lunar year, or 12 full cycles of the Moon, is roughly 354 days and in 2023, Lunar New Year begins on Sunday, January 22. So, the only thing that really happens on January 1 is the celebration and fireworks.