January, for many people, is one of the coldest and darkest times of the year. There’s almost no plant life still living, and it’s usually a time when most people just want to stay at home and sleep until spring comes.

If you think about it, who even said that the new year should start in January? Why couldn’t it start at literally any other time?

It makes no sense for New Year’s to be when it is. It’s over a week away from the winter solstice. It has no connection to any kind of natural phenomenon. The reason it was in January in the first place was that January represented Janus, the Roman god of beginnings. Effectively, the New Year was a way for Romans to worship Janus. When the Roman Catholics spread their Julian Calendar, the beginning of the year continued to be in January. When the Julian calendar was retired, this same change transferred to the Gregorian calendar. 

Then, as societies converged and the world became more interconnected, calendars did as well. The Gregorian calendar is our usual standard, made by the Catholic Church as the successor to the Julian Calendar, which had been the former standard for ease of communication.

Many different cultures around the world use entirely different calendars from the common Gregorian calendar. In North Korea, April 15th, 2026, on the Gregorian calendar will be New Year’s Day, 114. In Ethiopia, the same day will be rendered Miyazya 7, 2018. 

We still use the Gregorian calendar, though. We’re still celebrating New Year’s in January because some Romans two thousand years ago decided that they thought it would fit better with their religion.

When was the last time that the average person remembered to think about Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, on New Year’s Day? When was the last time that the average person thought about Janus at all? Unless someone has very specific interests, there’s almost no chance the name would ring a bell. 

Essentially, there’s no reason as to why we all chose to use the Gregorian calendar outside of “everyone was already using it.” It’s just a calendar that works pretty well, so we’ve never changed it.

That means there’s virtually no reason to keep January 1st as the beginning of the calendar. It’s not connected to any natural phenomenon like the solstice. No one thinks about Janus during January more than they think about Freyja on Fridays. The only reason that it’s been kept that way is that it’s what we’re familiar with. 

The time that actually makes sense for the new year to start is on the first day of spring. In the spring, plants are regrowing, and people are finally starting to get out and about again. It’s the perfect time to represent the beginning of a new cycle. 

So many alternate calendars have spring as the beginning of the year, too! The Romans had their new year in March originally. In Persia and Thailand, the new year starts in March and April, respectively. 

There is absolutely nothing that means that the new year should start in January. Changing it from the dead of winter to Spring would mean that it could actually properly represent the new beginnings. The only reason we’ve yet to change it is that that’s the way it’s always been.

Maybe it’s time for a change, a new beginning that begins in the spring.