Every Day is New Year.

What we celebrate as “New Year” in the Western world and most of postcolonial Africa is an arbitrary European cultural calendar of Roman emperors sustained by Eurocentric Christianity. No day is so special to be called the beginning of a new year. The Earth revolves around a star called the Sun in a galaxy called the Milky Way.

Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 replaced Julian calendar instituted by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. He moved New Year from March 25 to January 1, named after Roman god Janus. February was squeezed in to absorb displaced dates and yield a leap year. Gregorian calendar passed on mislabeled months, from September(7/9) to December(10/12), just to preserve July(7) named after Julius Ceaser, and August(8) named after Augustus Caesar. Not only were months mislabeled, but the days were also skewed… necessitating a kindergarten song to remember the order!

The current calendar is a patchwork. Getting 365 days to fit into 12 months was not easy. The ancient Igbo intellectuals solved the puzzle with a lunar lead of four-day week, seven-week month (28 days), and 13-month year. Wait, that is 364 days in a year. Correct. Every four years, there is “ọchụchụ-afọ” ritual, during which four days are added to “chase the year,” thus syncing with the solar system.

Based on agricultural, celestial, lunar, lunisolar, religious, or cultural considerations, many nations celebrate new year differently on different dates. The following will suffice:

Ahịajiọkụ (Igbo, Nigeria): The Igbo has an agricultural calendar. The new year is marked by the new yam festival, when the rainy season takes a break for the clouds to reload: “August break.”

Wepet Renpet (ancient Egypt)—“The opening of the year,” marked in August when the River Nile flooded and the star Sirius is visible.

uMandulo (Zulu, South Africa)—“The beginning” or traditional lunisolar new year (August/September), marking the end of winter in the southern hemisphere.

Chūnjié (China)—Lunar New Year between January 21 and February 20.

Nowruz (Persian/Iran)—“New Day” in Persian, typically on March 20 or 21.

Enkutatash (Ethiopia)—”Gift of Jewel” on September 11 or 12

Songkran (Thailand)—water festival, April 13-15

Rosh Hashanah (Jewish)—September or October

Diwali (India)—”The Festival of Lights”; though not official Indian New Year, it is celebrated in October or November by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists.

The Igbo traditional new yam festival still marks the new year, although the Gregorian calendar overshadows it. The new yam festival is much more than a food fest; it is New Year, Easter, May Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Kwanzaa combined. It celebrates yam god Jiọkụ and commerce that produces wealth: “Ahịa ji ọkụ”!

“Every day is new year” purports that every day is a new dawn in one’s life, another opportunity to muster mental strength and seek spiritual support for the tough task of staying alive and well. Go and do just that: It’s a day… like every other day.

M.O. ENE

@OkaaMoe