Festivals and Fairs

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Festivals and Fairs in the month of January


New Year - All over India
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It is a national holiday. The celebration of the New Year is "borrowed" from the West and mainly takes place in the metropolis and bigger cities.

Just like in the West the old year, for better or worse, is gone for good. The New Year starts with fresh promise.



In the West the celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. Celebration on 1stJanuary is purely arbitrary and has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. The Romans continued to observe the New Year in late March, but different Roman emperors continually tampered with their calendar so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.

In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the New Year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian calendar. It again established January 1 as the New Year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.
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