The New Year is the oldest of all holidays. In the years around 2000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23. Late March is that time of year that Spring begins, and new crops are being planted. The New Year celebration then lasted eleven days (can you imagine the hangover we'd have if WE did that!).
The Romans continued to observe the new year on March 25, but their calendar was continually tampered with by emperors until the calendar 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.
Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the new year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations. New Years was observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.
The most popular tradition of modern New Years celebrations is the "New Year's Resolution - which they did in early Babylonian times also. Today, the most popular resolutions are losing weight and quitting smoking. In early Babylon - the most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment!!
The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was started in Greece around 600 BC. They celebrated their God of Wine by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility.
