THE NEW YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 155, 29 December 1938, Page 10

THE NEW YEAR

WHERE IT BEGINS

INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE

It is not due to any act on the part of Providence, or to undue favouritism or political motive, that no country will be ahead of New Zealand in welcoming the advent of the year 1939 A.D. [t is due solely to what is called the "date line," a man-made contrivance to regulate the passing of the days and years. Ages ago the world had little need for a uniform calendar: each day could begin and end with the rising and setting of the sun, and it mattered little what year it was. But the time arrived when uniformity

in the calendar was necessary for the civilised world, and a problem^ associated with this was the establishment of a definite line on which each dated day and each dated year would begin. There is no valid reason for the dated year or day heginning in the Garden of Eden in preference to the Chatham Islands. It has obviously got to begin somewhere, v and an international conclave long ago decided that the beginning would be along the 180 th meridian, with one* or two diversions from the straight line so as to include or exclude certain islands.

As the result of that arrangement New Zealand shares with Fiji the honour of being the first country to welcome the coming New Year. But it is only due to the fact that New Zealand has Summer Time, which advances the Standard Time by 3P minutes, that this honour is shared with Fiji, otherwise^ Fiji would be the first-by half an hour? In one historic year, when New Zealand first had Summer Time and clocks were advanced the full ho ( ur. New Zealand was the first country to welcome the New Year.

The date tine is a purely arbitrary but very necessary arrangement. Immediately on one side of it, to \ the west, it will be 12 p.m.—midnight on Saturday—and 1939 will be dawning. But a mile away on the eastern side it will be midnight on Friday only. 24 hours earlier By stepping over the date line (which would not be easy, as it runs mainly through the ocean) it would be possible in one second or so to advance 24 hours in time or else to go back the same length of time. Ships, of course, do this when they sail or steam across" the date line, and. according to the direction in which they are going, they have two days running which are the same or else miss a day entirely. WORLD-WIDE WAVE OF GREETINGS. The corning year, 1939, then definitely begins on the date line, and is greeted first by New Zealand and Fiji. Two hours later Australians will be welcoming 1939. Japan, China, and India follow' suit in that order, then Eastern Europe and Africa. When to New v Zeaianders 1939 is exactly 12 hours .old, people in Great Britain will be ushering in the New Year. Later still, it will be 1939 in the United States of America, and the last country to welcome 1939 will be Samoa, which is just east of the date line. The year 1939 in Samoa, therefore, does nqt begin until 24 hours after it begins in New Zealand. However, it is by no means the whole world which takes an interest in 1939 A.D. Jews and Mohammedans, for instance, who number many millions of the world's inhabitants, have quite different ideas about the New Year. That of the Jews began in September last, and they reckon it was the year 5699. (dated from the Creation). Year 1357 of the Mohammedan era began in March last. For general purposes, however, as apart from religious persuasions,. 1939 will be accepted throughout the .civilised world on January I. NEW YEAR'S OAY. January 1, however, has not always been observed as New Year's Day. Between 1155 and 1752 New Year's Day in England was March 25, the year being reckoned as beginning with the Spring Equinox. Scotland, ever to the fore, adopted January 1 as New Year's Day in 1600, 152 years before England did, and the Scotch calculation of this date has always been' more emphatic than that across the border. When the crowds in the Wellington streets on Saturday evening make a hideous din in welcoming 1939, they will be, although probably not realising it, imitating what the Chinese have done from time immemorial. The Chinese make a din, in which crackers and, fireworks play an important part, in order to scare away any malefic spirits which may be about and wishing to interfere with the Smooth running of the New Year.