Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-01

If one could look backward some
three or four decades. how different
would be the manners and practices
noted in connection with the observ-
ance Of New Year day!
If the observer were a child in the
United States, he would be as eager to
awake early and investigate his New
Year presents" as he had been, the
week before, his Christmas gifts. he
would hail family and neighbors with
the quick cry, New Years gift! Tor
the one who thus got in the nrst
challenge would be entitled to claim
a present from the less alert one.,,
Then. as soon as the first excite
ment subsidized, the children would
frolic with their "hrecrackers OF
shooting crackers" imported from
China and sold for Is cents PACK.
Few children were rich enough 70
have more than one pack for the
celebration. and each separate
cracker was fred alone, with accom-
panving screams Of delight. :,
Later in the day, the "grown-ups
annlied themselves diligently to New
Year calls-the ladies keeping open
house" and the beaux making their
rounds from lady to lady, AT every
home Except those of the "unco
guid'). wine or liquor was served, so
that, long before the end, the gallant
would be in q state OF intoxlcation'
his social popularity.
Nearly every vesttge or 1ne oiuen
customs has disappeared within the
,yst two decades, but the antiquity
of the origin Of most OF those as
carded practices reaches back
through many centuries and through
many vicissitudes.
u X y X
The year is reckoned by astronomy
from the time it takes the Worlo 70
travel around it's orbit back 10 the
same point taken as its starting point;
Strangely. no European or occiuen Ia
astronomer was able to measure the
year with as great exactness as did
the Toltecs of prehistoric Mexico, Tor
whereas the Toltecs' year came 80
close to the precise solar year that the
error was so slight as to require o,ooo
wears before the discrepancy, amount
ed TO one day, the nearest to exactness
ocbieved nv the scientists of ancient
Rome in the Julian calendar, LETT an
error a little over II minutes a year.
which accumulated into a Wnoie oay
every 1913 years.
Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians and
Persians began their year at the
Autumnal equinox, september ~ and
the Greeks, until the MIN centuly
r q. began THEN. year at the WINTER
solstice. December 81, as did also the
Romans. until Julius Caesar adopted
the Julian calendar, postponlng the
Machining Of the year to January L.
T,ha Jews always reckOned the year
from the first day of Tishra, the
month from September 6 to October o.
though their ecclesiastical year begins
March Fl. The early Christians count
| ed the year from March 70. Anglo
| Saxons made New Year the same day
| as Christmas, December 20, but wneh
| William the Conqueror arrived ne
changed the date to January J. De
cause Of the arrangements for ms
| coronation on that date. Later, the
| English went back to March 20 as
New Year, so as to harmonic WITH
the rest Of Christendom.
pope Gregory undertook to correct
the errors accumulated in the Julian
calendar-amounting then Q582) TO ii
days-by adopting the Gregorian
| calendar, and he moved New Year
back to January 1. The new system
was Immediately accepted ny an
| Catholic countries; 1t was adopted py
| Germany more than a century later
17OO) and England in 1751.
X X X X
| For many years it was the custom
| to use double dates-the odd style
and the new style"-together, a fact
which has caused considerable con
| fusion in history, when there was un
Certainty as to which calendar was
meant, in case only a single date was
recorded.
| X X y X
The practice of giving New Year
presents is one of the oldest known
to history. Tradition has it that the
mythical King Tatius instituted II