Where or how did the tradition of...

Celebrating January 1 as the first day of the year is a relatively modern custom in the Western world. It was only after the Gregorian calendar reform in the 16th century that Europe came to accept the date, although the revised Julian calendar in 46 B.C. made January the first month. Regardless of which calendar is followed (and there are many), each culture throughout the world celebrates the passage from the old year to the new. Time is often personified as an old, white-bearded man carrying a scythe and sometimes an hourglass. This man, “Father Time,” is probably descended from the classical depiction of Cronus, an ancient Greek deity who carried a sickle. The scythe is a symbol of his power to destroy; the hourglass is a sign of the constant, unstoppable flow of the years. Father Time passes on the burden of the year to Baby New Year after midnight on January 1.