Marching into the New Year: April Fool!

Once upon a time, all over the world, everyone followed the same calendar; the Lunar Calendar. Even today, in Turkey and Iran, people follow the Lunar Calendar; March is the New Year.

Ancient cultures, including those of the Romans and Indian subcontinent, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.)

The conjunction of the earth, sun and moon coming in alignment near the vernal equinox every year – a perfectly balanced point in the earth-sun-moon system, was deemed by the ancient, knowledgeable people as an apt milestone to usher in a New Day, a New Year and new hopes.

New year celebrations in India

Earth, Moon and Sun in alignment near vernal Equinox – Ugadi

New year is celebrated in India in various regions in March–April. India has a variety of calendars, some are lunar based, some are based on the Sun, some are luni-solar and some are Jovian i.e. Jupiter based.

The New Year system is based on the cosmos, it begins when the Sun or the Moon enter the first point of Aries.

12 months and the Sanskrit connection

Do you know the meaning of the names of all the months? The English months are not in English; they are surprisingly connected with Sanskrit. 

Do you know what December means; Das means ten and Ambar means sky, so December means the tenth sky.

Nav means nine in Sanskrit. November means the ninth sky.

Holi

The 'Holi' festival is a very fun-filled and popular occasion in India. People play holi with Chandan and colored water.

This festival is celebrated around early March each year. People believe that the bright colors represent energy, life and joy. Huge bonfires are also burnt in the evening and people worship the fire.

There is a famous story associated with the festival in the puranas: