Is it a Problem for Jews to Celebrate the Gregorian New Year?

Dear Jew in the City,

Is it a problem for Jews to celebrate the Gregorian New Year?

Sincerely,

Brad

Dear Brad,

Thanks for your very interesting question. The Torah prohibits us from copying other nations’ practices (Leviticus 18:3), which means that we’re not allowed to observe the holidays of other religions. This can be tricky to navigate because it’s not always clear what is and what isn’t a religious holiday.

Christmas should be a no-brainer. Despite the annual complaint from religious Christians about the commercialization and secularization of the holiday, it is still a religious holiday, celebrating a fairly well-known event in their faith. The fact that Christmas is a religious holiday should be apparent from its name, which includes both “Christ” and “mas” (i.e., “Christ’s Mass,” a mass being a service at which participants receive communion).

The next tier includes holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. These are days that many people don’t think of as religious, but they are inextricably linked to their religious roots. Halloween is a synthesis of the Christian All Hallows Eve and the pagan Samhain. Valentine’s Day is derived from the Christian Feast of Saint Valentine and the pagan Lupercalia. Each of these days features practices derived from their Christian and/or pagan origins. For those who are interested, I have written more about Halloween here, and more about Valentine’s Day here. (Have I not written about Valentine’s Day on this site? We may have to rectify that!)

Also on this tier is Saint Patrick’s Day. A number of years ago, a few of my colleagues invited me to join them for a beer on March 17. I declined because it was St. Patrick’s Day. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not prohibited to drink a beer on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s just that my colleagues never went out for a beer before, and they never did so since. They were going out specifically because it was St. Patrick’s Day, so doing so was beyond my personal comfort level. This story adds nothing of use to the current discussion, so I don’t even know why I mentioned it.

Which brings us to the third tier: Holidays that are completely secular. The one that is most confusing for some people is Thanksgiving. Since it was started by the Pilgrims (in the popular consciousness if not in actual historical fact) and its stated purpose is to give thanks to God, it certainly feels like it should be a religious holiday, but it isn’t. It’s a strictly American holiday. No religion requires its adherents to eat turkey and stuffing on the fourth Thursday in November. Many religious authorities are perfectly okay with observant Jews enjoying their cranberry sauce, as I do, unapologetically. (Hmmm… This is in contradistinction to my earlier St. Patrick’s Day story, so I guess that story did have a point after all!)

You can read more about Thanksgiving here. Other holidays in the “strictly secular” tier include Independence Day and Mother’s Day. So, if you’re inclined to grill on the Fourth of July, feel free. And you’d better remember the mother in your life on the second Sunday in May if you know what’s good for you!

So, in which category does New Year’s Day fall? Unsurprisingly, it’s messy.

Does it have religious roots? Kind of? Maybe? January 1 does coincide with the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ, which is on the liturgical calendar of Eastern Orthodox churches, Lutheran churches and some Anglican churches. This holiday celebrates the bris of Jesus since, if he was born on 12/25, he would have been circumcised on 1/1. (This event is recorded in the Christian Bible – Luke 2:21 – but dates are not specifically given for the birth and circumcision of Jesus.)

January 1 was also the pagan festival in celebration of Janus, the god for whom January was named.

But just because these dates coincide with New Year’s Day, does that mean they’re necessarily the reason for the modern holiday? Or are we just celebrating the flip of the calendar to a new number? We certainly don’t have any practices reflecting Christian or pagan significance.

Further complicating matters is that January 1 wasn’t even New Year’s Day until a few hundred years ago. The new year used to start on March 25, to coincide with the vernal equinox. January 1 was adopted by Pope Gregory as the start of the year in his 1582 calendar reformation. England and her colonies didn’t adopt January 1 as New Year’s Day until 1752. So, any holidays that coincide with New Year’s Day seem to be a fairly modern coincidence.

Rav Moshe Feinstein in Iggros Moshe (EH 2:13) permitted observing New Year’s Day, though he noted – as was often the case in such responsa – that religiously scrupulous people should decline to do so. Of course, if one does choose to celebrate the new year, he must do so in a way that is appropriate for an observant Jew.

The reality is that every date on the calendar is a religious feast on at least one religion’s liturgical calendar. February 2, for example, is both Groundhog Day and Candlemas. That doesn’t necessarily mean that a secular holiday is derived from the religious holiday. Do your research, listen to your gut and, as always, consult your rabbi for guidance.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
Educational Correspondent
Follow Ask Rabbi Jack on YouTube

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