God's New Year begins with the month of Abib (Nisan) in early spring, as set in Exodus 12:1-2. God mentions it only as a calendar marker and never commands a party, countdown, champagne, or kissing. January 1 is a pagan date. It grew out of the Roman Saturnalia, a festival of drunken revelry, gift-giving, and even human sacrifice in honor of Saturn, which ran from mid-December to January 1. Church leaders could not stamp out Saturnalia, so they Christianized it. Medieval Teutonic and Druid customs such as the Yule log and mistletoe were added. Pope Gregory XIII restored the Roman date of January 1 in 1582. January 1 also became a day of persecution against Jews, and New Year's Eve falls on Saint Sylvester Day, named for the pope tied to anti-Jewish laws. Customs like midnight kissing, the old man and baby imagery, the two-faced god Janus, and "lucky" foods carry pagan roots. Today the celebration produces drunkenness, adultery, disease, accidents, and broken relationships. God forbids learning the way of the heathen (Jeremiah 10:2; Leviticus 18:3), and Jesus condemns teaching human commandments as doctrine (Mark 7:7). Because God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8), a Christian veneer such as a watch night service cannot make the day acceptable. Believers must not conform to the world (Romans 12:2) and must come out of Babylon (Revelation 18:1-5).

God's calendar begins the year in the spring, with Abib or Nisan (Exodus 12:1-2), which fell on April 9 in 2016. God mentions it only as a time marker before Passover and Unleavened Bread, and nowhere tells anyone to party or get drunk. January 1st is pagan to the core. Its celebration grew out of the Roman Saturnalia, which ran from mid-December to January 1st with drunken revelry, gift giving, and even human sacrifice in honor of Saturn, and out of Mesopotamian festivals renewing the world for the year. Church leaders could not stop the custom, so they absorbed it. Later Teutonic and Druid rites added the Yule log and mistletoe, and Pope Gregory imposed January 1st on the Western world in 1582. That day also became a occasion for persecuting Jews, with forced conversion sermons, taxes, and book confiscations, and December 31st is St. Sylvester's Day, named for another anti-Jewish pope. The midnight kiss is a holdover of pagan sexual rites, and lucky foods are superstition. Today the day is an excuse for drunkenness, adultery, and accidents. God commands His people not to learn the way of the heathen (Jeremiah 10:2; Leviticus 18:3). Because God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8), living in a modern nation does not excuse it. Christians are told not to be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2) and to come out of Babylon (Revelation 18:1-5).

God established the New Year in Exodus 12:2, where He told Moses, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." This clear definition verse sets the year's start in the month of Abib (later called Nisan), the springtime month when barley reaches the green ear stage. Israel determined it by the new moon coinciding with that stage of the barley crop, and a new moon was delayed a month if the barley would not be ready. Later the Levites calculated the new moons astronomically, verified them by sighting, and the high priest sanctified them. Some passages seem to point to a New Year on Tishri 1 in the autumn, and scholars therefore argue for two simultaneous calendars, a civil year beginning in Tishri and a sacred year beginning in Abib. Each of these indications can be answered. Ezekiel 40:1 does not name the month, and Ezekiel consistently uses the Babylonian spring-year reckoning, so "the head of the year" is the tenth of Abib, making Abib 1 the true rosh hashana. Tabernacles falls at the end of the agricultural year, not of a calendar. Spring is naturally the "return of the year." Israel kept an Abib 1 New Year, whatever surrounding cultures did. Grounded in Exodus 12:2, the Tishri 1 indications fall away, and January 1 as New Year's Day is wholly erroneous.