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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Or is it?
You see it isn't new year's day everywhere in the world today, only for those that use the Gregorian Calendar, also known as the Western Calendar or Christian Calendar.
The Gregorian Calendar was first established during the late 1560s by Italian mathmatician and astrologer Aloysius Lilius, who wanted to bring the Easter holiday into alignment with the Spring Equinox.
Unfortunately Lilius died in 1576 so he never lived to see the implementation of his new civil calendar, but it was revised six years after his death by German born mathmatician and astronomer Christopher Clavius.
In 1582 Clavius changed the calendar from the previously used Julian Calendar. This calendar, which was named after Roman emperor Julius Ceasar, had been in use since the fourth century and had become so out of alignment that it had the date of the Spring Equinox set at the 10th of March, about ten days out of sync.
This new Gregorian calendar, which was named after the incumbent pope at that time, Pope Gregory XIII, was at first only implemented for use in Catholic countries but by 1930 it had been adopted by all of the Protestant and Eastern Orthodox countries around the world too.
As well as being new year's day today it is also the day for celebrating the Feast of St Basil.
Saint Basil the Great is the patron saint of Russia, monks and political activists and he is famous in Russia for being their version of Santa Claus, although he is probably best remembered by the rest of the world by way of the stunning, onion domed cathedral located in Moscow's Red Square, shown below, which was named in his honour.
Of course there are thousands of people who were born on this date so if you fancy celebrating someone's birthday today you couldn't go wrong by choosing to remember the birthday of British author E.M Forster. Forster was born on this day in 1879 and became famous for penning such literary classics as Howard's End, A Room With A View and A Passage To India.
If Basil and Mr Forster aren't doing it for you, maybe celebrating a country's independence day might hit the right note, of which there are many today including Brunei, Cameroon, the Czech Republic, Haiti, Sudan and the Republic of Samoa.
It is also Constitution Day in Italy, Liberation Day in Cuba and Republic Day on the island of Taiwan.
