Surprisingly, religious leaders from Islam say that New Year’s Eve is a Christian event, while Christians say the occasion does not commemorate any specific Biblical event. Jewish, Persian, Hindu and Buddhist leaders also say that the celebration does not belong to their faith.

Religions and cultures have their own calendars and celebrate the New Year on different dates, hence the differing perceptions. For instance, Sunday night’s celebration marks the beginning of the year 2018 on only the Gregorian calendar.

Muslims around the world follow the Hijri calendar, celebrating their own New Year on the first day of the Muharram month. The Chinese ethnic group, the largest on the planet, will celebrate their version of New Year’s Eve, locally known as Imlek, on Feb. 16 in 2018 to mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year. In Iran, it is called the Navruz festival. In India, every ethnic group has their own New Year celebrations, such as Puthandu in Tamilnadu, Ugadi in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh as well as Yugadi in Karnataka. Likewise, the Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

In Thailand, there is the Songkarn festival, while the Vietnamese celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. In Korea, they celebrate Seollal.

So why do people across the globe celebrate New Year’s Day on Jan. 1 even though they have their own different New Year celebrations?

Firstly, the Greogorian calendar has become the most widely used calendar, so communities the world over tend to follow it in addition to their own native calendars. Second, New Year celebrations are universal and secular in nature. Whether one is rich or poor, religious or non-religious, young or old, everybody celebrates the event in one way or another. It is a festival for everybody on the planet.

The history of the celebration goes back four thousand years, long before Christianity and Islam were born. According to historical data, some of the earliest celebrations were in Mesopotamia in 2000 BC, usually at around the time of mid-March or the vernal equinox. Different cultures celebrated the New Year on different dates.

The Jan. 1 celebration is relatively new as there was no January month in the early Roman calendar — there were only 10 months in a year, with March 1 as the first day of the year.

In around 700 BC, Rome’s second king Numa Pontilius added the months of January and February. In 153 BC, New Year celebrations on Jan. 1 occurred for the first time under the Roman Empire, although some people celebrated the New Year on March 1.

Rome’s Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar in 46 BC and declared Jan. 1 the beginning of the year. This tradition of New Year celebrations on Jan. 1 continued until the medieval period in Europe when the Council of Tours banned the celebration, saying it was a Pagan custom and therefore unchristian in nature. During the period, celebrations were moved to different dates, such as Dec. 25.

Pope Gregory XIII introduced in 1582 the Gregorian calendar and restored Jan. 1 as the beginning of the New Year. But several Protestant states, such as Britain, did not adopt the calendar until 1752.

New Year’s Eve on Jan. 1 has been celebrated for 265 years uncontested and uninterrupted. The present Gregorian calendar is 435 years old.

Billions of people the world over of all ideologies and belief systems are gearing up to welcome the New Year on Sunday night. Indonesia is no exception.

Millions of Indonesians are planning to flock to various party venues, from Aceh to Papua, on Sunday night to welcome 2018 with fireworks, trumpets, whistles, dancing and late-night revelry.

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