> I based my statement upon information gleaned from conversations with my
> customers, 80% of which are black. Most of them think that Kwanzaa was
> "made up" by retailers in order to get their money. Some have told me that
> they resent the "social engineering" aspect of Kwanzaa. Here in the South,
> there seems to be very little support of or identification with this event
> among African-Americans.
Doubtlessly true; I've heard some people say the same thing about Christmas.
> > January 1 was "made up" into New Years Day by an act of
> > fiat; New Years Day used to be April 1.
>
> When and how did this happen?
Actually, there was no "act", that was hyperbole. The earliest
reference to a Januray 1 New Year I can find is the Roman Civil
Year. Later, the Catholic Church, which liked to line up the
calendar with its Holy Events, wanted sto see Christmas become
the start of the new year. But some later winter/early spring
feasts were a popular time for the people, so through much of
the dark ages, April 1 was the start of the New year.
When the establishment of the Gregorian Calnedar began to
take hold (which moved New Year's Day officially to Jan 1),
people foolish enought to still celebrate it on April 1
became known as "April's Fools".
The Gregorian Calendar was adopted tt different times in
different countries; I think Russia held out until the
early 20th Centurt. See
http://www.genfair.com/dates.htm
for more info.
Regards,
-dq
Received on Tue Dec 18 2001 - 06:41:07 GMT