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From sometime around the middle of the 12th century, throughout the late middle ages and all the way through to 1752, New Year’s Day wasn’t officially celebrated on the 1st January at all - but on the 25th March. Christian scholars in ancient Alexandria, and on the basis of some quite extraordinary logic, had decided that the 25th March was the day on which God had created the world. And so, many argued, it must also be the day on which Jesus was conceived – Jesus being the new creation. That’s why Christmas day comes exactly nine months later. So the 25th March was taken to be New Year’s day because, for Christians, that day was absolutely pivotal in the great story of salvation. But the problem with the old calendar was that it had miscalculated the length of a year by about eleven minutes and so important dates, like Easter, kept on shifting about. So in 1582, the Pope ordered a new method of calculation - which included moving New Year’s Day to January. Catholic countries quickly fell in line behind this new way of doing things. Those countries that didn’t like being told what to do by the Pope - including, of course, the Protestant British under Elizabeth 1st– decided to ignore him. It took another hundred and seventy years before we officially changed to the 1stJanuary. These days it’s only the British tax-man that follows close to the old way of doing things. And though it slightly pains me to say this, I’m rather with HM Revenue and Customs on this one. For whilst 25th March is rich in theological resonance, the 1st January is not. The ancient Romans began the year with January because this was when new consuls took up office. Historically, there is nothing particularly Christian about today as New Year’s Day - apart from the fact that this is still the season of Christmas. But even so, last night around my way, the churches were packed. A few years after the 1st January officially became New Year’s day, Methodists began to hold watch night services over new year’s eve. In part as resistance to the idea that New Year had become little more than the great festival of getting wasted, John Wesley developed watchnight services as a way for Christians to renew their commitment to God and to sobriety. Later still, Black Christians in America would celebrate 1st January as the day on which Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Declaration came into effect in 1863. It was the day many slaves found their freedom, and one of the reasons why my church was full of clapping and singing until the small hours this morning. As some traditions die, new ones develop. But the same faith is being celebrated throughout. Happy New Year.