On Crocuses, Calendars, and Why God Always Knew Spring Was the Real New Year
I blame the Pope. Pope Gregory the XIII in the 16th century introduced the Gregorian calendar. It was aimed to realign the celebration of Easter in the spring and was working off of the Julian calendar. Thanks to Julius Caesar our months do not line up with their namesake. October should have been the eight month for heaven’s sake! Now “Oct” describes the tenth month instead of the eigth and so on. Thanks to him and Augustus Caesar it is all just nonsense. Though I do love July, it just sounds so warm and wonderful and is my birthday month. Alas I am not a calendar historian so I admit I am not apprised of the full story. Just some brief research clued me in to a topic that is much more sordid and dramatic than I ever thought possible of a simple time tracking tool. That said, even though there has been so much tension over getting it right and I certainly would not want to give it a go, it is still my prerogative to reject this calendar system and be salty towards the Pope of time past for befuddling our sense of a New Year.
I had a great friend who refused to make resolutions in January. Perhaps her midwinter birthday influenced her to only want to celebrate instead of fasting and dieting and starting a new workout plan like so many around her. Perhaps she had a deep wisdom that many of those around her failed to notice. Her time for committing to new goals was in the spring. Though she is a minority in the west, there are many cultures who hold fast to starting things afresh once the earth starts to blossom. While the Chinese New Year is celebrated nearing the end of winter, Holi of India, Ostara of the Celtic tradition and many, many others celebrate their concept of the New Year in the springtime. I cannot help but think that humanity is wired for letting the natural season play a part in spring boarding us into our goals and life shifts and reconfiguring our life purposes and routines. Even looking at the long history of marriages being held predominantly in the spring and summer shows me something. Starting a whole new life, identity, embracing a new role and new family and responsibility. It is this season that gives us life and power and motivation to do so.
Here’s the kicker for me. Exodus talks about the New Year. It is assumed that the reader knows when the New Year lands as it is the Passover highlighted and is instructed by God to be on the 14th day of the month of the New Year. I count 14 days before the Passover which puts us on March 18th in this year of 2026 as the start of the biblical New Year. I am not even sure if this is consistent with the Jewish calendar as they celebrate the New Year in the autumn, so I will call it the biblical New Year for clarity. But it comes in the spring. I can’t unsee this intention for our God to call the beginning of a yearly cycle to be in the spring. So please can we stop all of this hoopla at the Gregorian New Year? Please? I’m all down with some refreshing, reorganizing, decluttering, I can get behind getting back on schedule after the holidays and switching things up. But new exercise routines? More intensive fasting and dieting, quitting smoking, starting a big ol routine? 75 hard when it is snowing outside?! Gross. What are we doing? It is winter my dudes! It smacks to me that we are not honoring being in the world, and yet not of it. And for the basic concept of that reference it is this idea in Scripture that Jesus was not of this world, as in walking in man’s corrupt thinking and ways. His followers shouldn’t be either. We should be on the side of light, on the side of goodness and not be swept up in whatever nonsense is going on in our culture. We should be on the side of Holy God. The kind of nonsense so many people who are wanting to make money off of us are pushing. God created humanity to run in cycles, and yet people who valued power in the past went against God’s creation and His instruction on cycles and observances. Honestly, maybe Gregory did his best with what he had, it does seem so despite the fact that so many rejected this calendar for a hundred years. And yes, I know we can’t physically change our calendar and the way that so much of the world records and communicates about time, but we can be intentional nonetheless. Now, don’t come at me too hard if this is a little historically off, but let us listen to the heart of the matter. We are meant to flow, not match and mimic and let it control us, but flow with God’s creation. He did it after all.
While wintering means slowing down, the spring time is when newness screams at you! Just take the butterfly, a staple of the season. Its symbol in every culture–every culture–is hope, rebirth and regeneration. Spring. The name itself is potential energy just released into motion. With my wintering journey of dedication to not pushing, to intentionality, to rest, to Light, I have had much new direction uncovered and some solidified. For me this March truly does feel new. It is the start of a year filled with so much change and redirection. Prayerfully and hopefully it is change that the Lord has set my feet upon. New projects, new home, new friends, new to me decade! Let me challenge you. What is a goal you wanted to pursue two months ago that quickly fell off? Take it up this week and see how it goes, basking in the new beginnings surrounding us now.
I do so long for spring every year. Surely it is because the sunshine comes back to us in the dark PNW, and the magic of the world around us comes alive, and once again my ambitious intentions sync up with the world again. Honoring God through acknowledging His created cycles is not for the faint of heart. You may find, like me, it feels like traveling upstream. And yet, most worthwhile things in life come at a cost. I’m finding it is an ever growing expression of love for the Lord and those around me, and frankly, for myself to set my attention on what God has set in motion, in creation and otherwise. The cost also comes with benefits, of course. And yes, this week I am setting goals and doing some future mapping as the cherry blossoms and crocuses have made an appearance in my neighborhood.
David Ewing Duncan. Calendar : Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Calendar. New York, N.Y., Avon Books, 1998.
Knight, Riley. “Episode 236: The Gregorian Calendar.” Half-Arsed History, 1 Jan. 2023, https://halfarsedhistory.net/2023/01/01/episode-236-the-gregorian-calendar/.
Nathan. “The Eleven Lost Days.” Footnoting History, 27 Feb. 2016, Footnoting History, https://www.footnotinghistory.com/home/the-eleven-lost-days.
rallen519. Best Gregorian Chants. Spotify, https://open.spotify.com/.