What exactly do we mean by a 'new year' anyway?

A HAPPY new year to all our readers, or a good many of them, at least; Cornwall's far from being the most culturally and ethnically diverse part of the UK but even here there's a good chance not all those who take this newspaper observe the Christian calendar, and more particularly that which was enforced on most of Europe by an edict of Pope Gregory the 13th in October 1582 (but not adopted in Great Britain until 1752).

- Phil Wisdom

The Islamic lunar calendar, for example, began in 622CE on the date of the Hijrah, the relocation of the Prophet and 70 of his followers from Mecca to Medina, has 354 or 355 days and begins in what the Gregorian calendar refers to as June or July, depending on the motion of the Moon; Iran, following a different rationale, uses the solar Persian calendar which commences at the spring equinox, March 21, and whose years are 11 days longer. The Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, is in the autumn, while the Coptic and Ethiopian calendars start in late August or early September, recalling the Ancient Egyptian festival of Wept Renpet, celebrating the annual Nile inundation which brought new life, growth and prosperity to the land. The Chinese new year usually falls between January 20 and February 20, as it does in Vietnam (the festival of Tet, which gave its name to the not