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Those of us who use the Gregorian calendar, mostly celebrate the New Year on 1 January. The Roman and Julian systems were superseded, I suspect, because they couldn’t pin down a simple concept like when to start the year. The latter moved it about between the beginning and end of March, Easter, September and Xmas Day. I don’t know how they worked out when to sow or harvest, never mind when to pay the milk bill. The haphazard Old Style dates were nailed in place in 1752, when the New Style came into force and made Hogmanay more certain.
Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii (Mediterranean spurge)
Many cultures use other reckoning and celebrate New Year differently, so China, India and Latin America for example, will not necessarily be setting off fireworks at the same time. Nevertheless, making a racket and torching the neighbour’s trees will probably feature as part of the merriment.
Fern frenzy
Wherever you are in the festival, I wish you peace, love and happiness for the fresh start. I hope that 2017 brings you more beautiful blooms and bountiful crops than experienced ever before. If you are nursing a glass of hooch in hand, slangevar, sláinte, salut, cheers.
Leading A Horticulture 
Thank you for a year’s entertaining, amusing and informative blog that has given me a lot of pleasure to read. May it blossom and flourish in 2017.
Happy New Year.
Thank you Jam. I’ve found that it’s easier to write the blog than try to make myself stop. Wishing you a fertile but strain free 2017.
Thanks for the delightful commentary on gardens and life! Though judging from the odd times my plants are flowering and growing, they are still on the old calendars. Why not take their advice and get more back in line with nature’s children? Hogmanay can then be a repeatable feast.
Thank you Senex. Sprinkled with a dose of global warming, I think that Nature’s calender will be accelerating like a Porsche on a skid pan. I am indeed taking notes from the garden and will be staying indoors until the frost disappears. A glass full of something spiritous will assist. Wishing you and yours all the very best for the New Year.
Bah, this new- fangled Gregorian calender is all a Papist plot. Personally I think the New Year should start in March.
Goodness, do you torch your neighbours’ trees on New Year’ s Eve? What fun. You wouldn’ t do it if you lived near Cruella de Vil like I do. Her revenge would be terrible.
Thank you Chloris. March won’t do – it’s the month of my birthday, so all of my bun fights are over by spring. Can we campaign for Xmas in summer, making the shopping less of a nippy job? I too live next door to a difficult woman. The crisping of her tree was an accident involving a Chinese lantern and the taking of strong drink. We’ll be repaying the indiscretion for decades. Wishing you every success with all that you essay throughout 2017.