Every year, cold-weather phobics welcome March-the month in which winter ends and spring begins. But for centuries, spring wasn't the only thing that began in March. Until 1752, throughout the English-speaking world-including America, March 25 was New Year's Day!

That's right: our Colonial forebearers would have made their New Year resolutions, had they been so inclined, around the same time that we forget ours entirely.

Celebrating the New Year in March dates back over 2,000 years to Rome. The ancient Roman calendar only had ten months. Following the last month, December, there were nearly 60 days that belonged to no month at all.  When spring arrived, the weather was perfect for the Romans' favorite activity: war and conquest. Thus, the Romans began the new year in spring with their first month, March, so named to honor Mars, the god of war.

Around 45 B.C.E, Julius Caesar decided that something needed to be done with all those month-less days each winter. So, he created two new months, January and February, and instituted a new calendar-the Julian Calendar-consisting of 12 months and 365 days. To make up for any lost time, he also added a pesky little thing called Leap Year that people then had as hard a time keeping track of as we do now. Despite January and February, March continued to be the month in which people celebrated the New Year.

After the Roman Empire fell and Christianity became the new state religion, March 25 was designated as New Year's Day. Why March 25? To commemorate the conception of Christ, whose birthday was celebrated precisely nine months later, on December 25.

For over a thousand years, the western world followed the Julian calendar. By the late-1500s, however, it became apparent that somewhere along the way, someone had lost track of which years were supposed to be Leap Years and then overcompensated by adding too many. As a result, Christians suspected that they were actually celebrating holidays such as Easter at the wrong time.
Not to fear! In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII came to the rescue by cutting ten days from the calendar and cracking down on the number of Leap Years: just one every four years-no matter what. And he decreed that a new year would begin on each first day of January.

Even though the general population continued to be confused about Leap Year ("Wasn't that just year? What? That was four years ago?"), throughout Europe, people accepted the new Gregorian Calendar and the new New Year's Day.

There was, however, one notable exception: Queen Elizabeth I of England. Besides being the first woman to rule the nation, she was also one of the first Protestants to do so. At that time, one's denominational affiliation was a much bigger deal than one's gender. "Good Queen Bess" (as Elizabeth's most devoted fans called her) essentially declared that no Catholic Pope was going to tell this Anglican girl when to celebrate New Year's Day. As a result, for the next 170 years, the entire English world, including its new colonies in America, continued to observe the old Julian calendar.

Finally, in 1750, the British Parliament decided to catch up with the times-literally. The Calendar Act of 1750 decreed that beginning on January 1, 1752, England and all of her colonies would observe what they called "The New Calendar." (The fiercely Protestant Brits of the day weren't about to give any credit to the long-deceased Pope Gregory by calling it the Gregorian Calendar.)
So it was that in 1752, England and America celebrated January 1 as New Year's Day for the first time.

There were a few little oddities that year. For instance, the day after September 2, 1752, was September 14, 1752.  Some people changed the date of their births to fit the new calendar. One young surveyor in Virginia, a then-unknown 20-year-old named George Washington, changed his birthday from February 11, 1731, to February 22, 1732. Otherwise, the change from one calendar to another was so seamless that the entire affair was soon forgotten.

Which is why, dear Reader, this entire 219-year-old story might be news to you-and good news that at. If you're feeling a bit down for having failed at the New Year resolutions you made on January 1, cheer up! You can start all over again because March 25 is just around the corner.

Happy New Year!
Again.