Today is March 17th. About two and a half months ago, I said "Happy New
Year!" to many of my friends. Slightly more than a month ago, I said the same
thing to some other friends. In about four days, I'll relay the same wishes
to yet another group of friends. I'll do the same thing in July and also in
September. "How can that be?", you might be thinking (if you're from Western
Europe or the Americas). "Everyone knows that New Year's Day is in January!"
The answer to the question you might've posed is that exactly when New Year's
Day is depends on the calendar--and I have friends who use one or more of
five different calendars to keep track of at least part of
their lives:
1. January 1st: New Year's Day on the Western/international calendar
2. Between January 10th and February 19th (in 1996, February 19th): New
Year's Day on the Chinese calendar (China, Korea, and a few other places)
3. March 21st: New Year's Day on the traditional Persian calendar (Iran)
4. mid-July (usually the 16th): New Year's Day on the Islamic (Muslim)
calendar
5. September: New Year's Day (ecclesiastical) on most Eastern Orthodox
Church calendars (Central and Eastern Europe) and, usually, on the Jewish
calendar.
And these are just the New Year's Days that I know about! Actually,
there are probably even more!
