New year… but not really a new year?

Often around the New Year, I see posts appearing on my feed saying that January 1st is not the real new year at all, and that it is something completely made up by the Gregorian calendar.

And yes, that is true.

The way we experience time today, and the calendar we use to structure our lives, is very different from how humans related to time before the Gregorian calendar was introduced. Time was once deeply connected to nature, the moon, the sun, the seasons, agriculture, and ritual. Today, it is mostly linear, counted, scheduled, and standardized.

But the question of when the new year truly begins is not as simple as many posts make it seem. Throughout history, many cultures and traditions have marked the beginning of a new year at very different moments.

The Gregorian calendar explained (in simple terms)

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar most of the world uses today. It was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a reform of the older Julian calendar.

This calendar is based on:

• A solar year of approximately 365.24 days

• 12 months of unequal length

• Leap years to correct small timing shifts

  
  

While it is mathematically useful for organizing societies, governments, trade, and global systems, it is not based on natural lunar cycles.

Months are no longer connected to the moon, even though the word month originally comes from moon.

A lunar year consists of about 354 days, which means that when we follow a purely solar calendar, we are slowly drifting away from the rhythms of the moon. In that sense, you could say we are “missing” time, not literally losing months, but losing the lived experience of time being cyclical, fluid, and connected to nature.

This disconnect is often what people intuitively feel when they say January 1st does not feel natural.

Different traditions, different beginnings

Many witches and pagans see Samhain (Halloween) as the beginning of the new year. This marks the start of winter, the descent into darkness, and the understanding that new life begins with death itself. It is rooted in a deep belief in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Other traditions place the new year in spring, at Imbolc or around the equinox, when nature begins to awaken again. But even that is not universal. When the Netherlands is already feeling spring-like, here in Oppdal I am often still surrounded by deep winter. Nature does not wake up everywhere at the same time.

This already shows us something important: time is experienced locally, not universally.

The Chinese New Year and the lunar rhythm

The Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar. It begins on the new moon that falls between January 21 and February 20, which means it shifts every year.

Each year is also connected to one of the twelve zodiac animals and one of the five elements, creating a rich symbolic system. For example, a Fire Horse year carries very different qualities than a Water Rabbit year.

Energetically, the Chinese New Year often feels like a true reset. There is a clear closing of one cycle and the opening of another, guided by the moon rather than fixed dates. For many people, this lunar new year feels like a genuine new beginning, even if they live in cultures that primarily follow the Gregorian calendar.

January 1st and collective consciousness

For many of us, January 1st does feel like a new year. I have to be honest: it does for me too.

Not as a moment to suddenly start everything or make big changes—because it is still winter, and nature’s energy is still underground—but as the feeling that a new round is coming.

I believe collective consciousness is something we should not take lightly. When millions of people across the world consciously or unconsciously mark January 1st as a beginning, it becomes a beginning energetically. Meaning is created collectively.

We could discuss for hours or days about when the real new year begins, just like people probably did throughout history. But maybe instead of seeing it as black or white, right or wrong, we can allow more nuance.

A personal experience of beginnings

For me, Samhain feels like a true new beginning. Summer is left behind, the descent inward begins, and we slowly move toward darkness and stillness.

January also feels like a beginning. A new planner, a different atmosphere than December, a quiet shift rather than a loud start.

Spring and the equinox, however, do not feel like a beginning to me at all.

It feels similar to birth. New life does not start when a child is born. That life already began months earlier, in the dark, quiet void of the womb. Birth is a transition, not the start.

I fully understand that others experience this differently. And that is exactly the point.

Bringing it back to yourself

Instead of asking, “When is the real new year?”

Maybe the more important question is:

• When do you feel a new cycle begin?

• When do you naturally reflect, release, and reset?

• When does something in you quietly say: a new round is starting?

  
  

Journaling questions

You might want to sit with these questions:

• When in the year do I feel most reflective?

• When do I naturally let go of the old?

• When do new ideas, intentions, or energy begin to stir in me?

• Do I experience different “new years” throughout the year?

• How does my body respond to January, Samhain, spring, or the lunar new year?

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There does not have to be one correct answer.

So, I’ll leave you with this question:

What is the new year for you?

With love,

Isabelle