New Year's Day in the United Kingdom

When did New Year's Day become an official bank holiday in the UK?

Although New Year’s Day has been celebrated for thousands of years, it didn’t become an official bank holiday in the United Kingdom until January 1, 1974. Years prior to that, January 1st was a statutory holiday. The concept of New Year’s Day celebration is rooted to the vernal equinox celebration of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) at around 2000 BC. Such celebration took place in the middle of March. Vernal Equinox indicates the start of spring and end of winter. Vernal Equinox is also referred to as Spring Equinox, March Equinox or Northward Equinox. Historically, New Year’s Day was observed on different dates depending on the location. In reference to the previously used Roman Calendar, March was the first month of the year and there were only 10 months. Old Roman Calendar served as the roots of modern-used calendar system. To that account, before the Gregorian calendar was adopted, some countries celebrate New Year’s Day in the month of March. Some celebrate it on September, while others celebrate in on Christmas Day, December 25. From old Roman calendar, Julian calendar was proposed by Julius Caesar and was used in most of Europe until it was replaced by another calendrical reform called Gregorian calendar, which is currently used by most countries. Both Julian and Gregorian calendar starts on January 1. In present times, almost all countries around the world use the Gregorian calendar, and that includes the United Kingdom.