Question- What festival does the Church celebrate on January 1?

While you ponder the answer to this question, I want to give a little information about the History of New Year’s Day. The date for the first day of the new year has changed 4 times in recorded history. In 153 B.C. (Before Christ), January 1 was designated by the Roman Empire to be the first day of the new year since it was the first day of the month that followed the winter solstice. Prior to this date the Romans and used March 1. Sometime in the Sixth Century A.D. (Anno Domini- Year of our Lord), March 25 was designated by Christianity as the first day of the New Year since this was the date that the Annunciation of the Lord (to Mary by Gabriel) was celebrated. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar and moved New Year’s Day back to January 1. This calendar was not accepted in England and the American Colonies until 1752.

The early Church did not set New Year’s Day as a special Festival, or Feast Day. It was a day for pagan revelers. On one January 1, a group of Christians decided to walk into the local church building. St. Augustine was there and spoke to them. “I see you have come here as if we had a feast today.” In 633, at the Council of Toledo, the Church decided that it should designate New Year’s Day as a Day of Fasting and Penitence with attendance at a Mass a requirement as an antidote to many Christians’ participation in the pagan rituals. St. Augustine preached during one New Year’s Mass, “During these days when they revel, we observe a fast in order to pray for them.”

In the late fourth and early fifth centuries the Western Church developed a liturgical calendar. In that calendar they designated December 25 as Christmas Day. It previously had been celebrated by the Romans as the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, a winter solstice feast. In the Seventh Century Pope Boniface IX designated New Year’s Day as the “Octave (8 days) of the Lord”. Slowly, over centuries of time the Church in various parts of the world used the day to celebrate “The Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity.”

As Lutherans we celebrate January 1 as The Circumcision and Name of Jesus. It was Eight Days after Mary had given birth that Jesus was “circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21). Since the focus of the Church is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is fitting that we begin each year with the name of Jesus.

~ Pastor Webb