When Is New Year’s Day?

J. Thomas Johnson

January 6, 2023

As we enter into another year on the Western Calendar, I have found myself puzzling over dates. As Christians we are offered no less than four options for the celebration of the beginning of the new year.

When God first delivered the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, He commanded the people to consider the month of Nisan as the first of months and to celebrate the Passover on the 14^th day of Nisan. In 2023, the first day of the month of Nisan will begin at sunset on March 22. Will that be New Year’s Day?

Furthermore, God commanded the Israelites to keep record of years in seven-year cycles. And those years were to be reckoned in relationship to the festivals of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Because of this, contemporary Judaism celebrates the beginning of the new year on Rosh Hashanah. In 2023, Rosh Hashanah will be celebrated from September 15-17. So, does Rosh Hashanah mark New Year’s Day for Christians?

Then again, on the Christian Calendar the Church Year begins with Advent. The first Sunday of Advent this year was November 27, 2022. So, was New Year’s Day for Christians actually six weeks ago?

And, of course, the Western Calendar tells us that New Year’s Day falls on January 1^st (i.e., the 8^th day of Christmas on the Christian Calendar). So which are we to choose? And that leads me to perhaps a more foundational question: why mark time in this way at all?

Why do we feel compelled to make changes in the dawn of a new year? Is that just a random superstition, or is there some Christian foundation for the practice? If we look at the three religious options we have been given for marking a new year, we see that each of those options is tied to a new beginning.

Passover was a new beginning for the people of Israel as God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Rosh Hashanah was an annual new beginning for the people of Israel as the sacrifice of Yom Kippur atoned for the unintentional and unknown sins committed in the previous year. And Advent is a new beginning for all of humanity that culminates in the birth of Jesus for the salvation of the world.

As Christians, when we think of a new year, we think of a practice articulated well by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12-14:

¹² Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14, NASB

For Christians, time is marked by God’s interventions in history to free us from the past and transform us for the future. As you enter into this new season, may you find renewed strength in Jesus to leave the sins and rebellions and missteps of the last season in the past, under the atoning blood of Jesus.

Of course, we must settle the past by repentance and any necessary reparations we might owe to others. So, we must begin there. But, then, we must release who we’ve been and follow God into who we are becoming in Him.

May the Lord strengthen you to pursue righteousness and holiness in the days to come as God continues to work to transform us into beings who reflect the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.