Baby New Year

Baby New Year is the use of a baby to symbolize the new year. Pictorial representations of the New Years's baby usually depict a male infant or toddler dressed in diapers, a top hat and a sash with the new year written across it. Over the course of the year the baby ages rapidly, and ends the year as a white bearded man, depicted as Father Time.¹

Fast Facts

1. New Years Day is January 1, according to the Gregorian calendar
2. In 2009, New Years falls on a Thursday
3. Many city hospitals publicize the birth of the first baby of the New Year in newspapers
4. Custom said to have originated in Ancient Greece²
5. Egyptians also used a newborn baby to symbolize rebirth²
6. Early Christians renounced the practice for years because of its pagan origins²

The Baby Parade

The earliest depictions of the Baby New Year appear in history around 600 B.C. in Ancient Greece. The Greeks paraded around with a baby in a basket to honor their fertility god, Dionysus, in hopes that he would bless their villages with fertility and abundance.² The Greeks and Egyptians celebrated the new year at the end of winter when the crops grew, not at the beginning of winter as people celebrate today. ³ German immigrants, whose ancestors had been using the Baby New Year as a symbol since the fourteenth century, brought the tradition with them to America.²

Related Pages on Mahalo

New Years | How to Keep New Year's Resolutions | How to Make New Year's Resolutions | New Year's Resolutions | New Year's Travel | Rudolph's Shiny New Year | New Year Clip Art | New Year Posters

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