. New Year’s Rituals and Customs The story of New Year, a festival of pagan origin, traces its roots back to the time of the Babylonians. They typically celebrated the transition from one year to the next during the spring equinox by returning borrowed agricultural tools as a gesture of goodwill for the upcoming harvest. In 46 BCE, Julius Caesar instituted the transition to the Julian calendar, designating the New Year celebration to fall between December 31 and January 1. This was intended to h