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When does the new year really start?

God has only one standard.

God's new year is in spring

God's new year is not on the first day of January and it was not at "Rosh Hashanah" in the fall. God set the new year in Exodus in 12:1-2; "And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." In verse 3, God commands every man to set aside on lamb on the tenth of the month. Starting in verse 6, he tells them to observe the passover on the fourteenth day of the month. The month that has passover is the first month. The first month, the month of Aviv, or spring, is determined by the sun and moon, not barley or a preset date. The year starts in March or April depending on the sighting of the new moon after the equinox.

Rosh Hashanah is not the New Year

The Jewish people celebrate a new year at a time they call Rosh Hashanah in the seventh month of the lunar year. This occurs in September or October. Rosh means head, and hence, the beginning. The Hebrew word rishon means first, in place, time or rank. Rosh Hashanah means head of the year. The scriptures are what matter and the first month according to God's calendar is in March or April. This also follows the world, weather and science where the plants start to grow in the spring. Teachers understand this but explain that the month of Nisan or Abib is the beginning of the religious year but Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the civil year. What does civil mean? It does not order the calendar or direct the timing of the religious events. The Jews did not have a financial year to submit reports for tax purposes. This was not required back then. It was not a way of tracking school semesters. The football season or other know sports seasons did not exist in day of old. It could not have been agricultural. The feast of first fruits came after the new year in spring not after the feast of trumpets which some call Rosh Hashanah. If the new civil year drew from farming, then grapes would often be the first fruits instead of barley because they are mostly harvested in September or October. Really, what significant meaning is left for the word civil? God's people were commanded to have a special day on the first day of the seventh month. A claim has also been made that the world was created in the fall. This is not found in the Bible. There are no reliable records of this claim. It was made up by man. In Leviticus 23:24 God said, "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation." This holiday is best named the Feast of Trumpets.

Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law instead of doing away with it

In Deuteronomy 4:2 God commands, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." When the Jews changed God's calendar they modified it on their own. This is not God's way. In Matthew 5:17-18 Jesus Christ explained , "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Heaven and earth have not passed away yet and God's standard for our calendar has not, either.

The barley harvest does not define the new year

Some people believe the barley harvest is tied to the new year. Leviticus 23 details the feast of the firstfruits, Shavous, Shavuot or Pentecost as given in Leviticus 23.

9	And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10	Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11	And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12	And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
13	And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
14	And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
15	And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16	Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
17	Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
18	And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.
19	Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
20	And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
21	And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

Nowhere here does it say to start the new year based on the date of a harvest or the bringing of the firstfruits. Furthermore, the harvest in the southern hemisphere occurs approximately six month earlier or later than the northern hemisphere. Even in the northern hemisphere barley it harvested at different times based on longitude and latitude. A famine could wipe out a barley harvest altogether. What then, would the year start months later when some crop of any kind could grow? What about hunter nomads who lived in places where crops were not grown? The barley system would be unreliable. There was not a reliable way to report a new moon observed in Jerusalem to a distant country. In verse 10, bringing the firstfruits was contingent upon being in the land and having a harvest. After Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, they could not bring firstfruits of barley. If barley were required for a new year, they could not have observed or celebrated a new year since the days of the Romans. God however, told Noah in Genesis 8:22, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." The year keeps on going but the barley does not.

Take another look at the phrase "morrow after the sabbath the sabbath". To which sabbath is it referring? All the discussion I have heard assumes the sabbath is the regular sabbath immediately after the special sabbath on the fifteenth day of the first month. The Bible does not say that. Verse 9 starts a new section. The sabbath in verse 11 does not reference the sabbath in verse 6. It is independent and therefore only means the regular sabbath after the firstfruits are brought. Nowhere does the Bible say the new year has to be delayed until the barley harvest is ready.

God gave us the sun and noon for signs and seasons

Genesis 1
14	And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15	And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16	And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Psalm 136
7	To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:
8	The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:
9	The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

The sun and moon were not to tell the future. They were for seasons. Our seasons and our years should be related to the sun and the moon. From the days of Moses, the Jews started the new year on the day that had the first visible new moon after the spring equinox. Currently the Jewish calendar has ended up with dates fixed for convenience. Sometimes the first day of the first month (Nisan) ends up before the equinox as on March 14, 2021 and sometimes it is after it such as April 6, 2019. The spring equinox is around March 20 each year. It is the time each year when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are the same length. The new moon from an astronomical standpoint is when the moon is in conjunction with the sun so that its dark side is toward the earth. AstroPixels has charts which shows moon phases (AstroPixels moon chart). For astronomers, the new moon is the time when it is not visible. To be a sign for seasons the new moon must be visible. From a Biblical standpoint, the new moon is when it first becomes visible. God had special sabbaths mentioned in Leviticus 23. No matter what day of the week some days fell on, they were considered sabbaths. This included the first day day of unleavened bread, the seventh day of unleavened bread, the feat of trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), the day of atonement (Yom Kippur), the first day of the feast of tabernacles and seven days later which is the day after the feast is over. Today, the Jewish calendar year may be moved if two sabbaths occur together. God never commanded the calendar to be moved to prevent adjacent or back to back sabbaths. If New Year's is celebrated it should be in the spring on the first visible new moon after the spring equinox. The current calendar is just one more way of dumbing down Christianity. Jesus Christ celebrated the passover and told us to do the same in remembrance of him. When Jesus returns the feast of tabernacles or booths also known as sukkos (sukkot) will be celebrated according to God's calendar and not by a year starting in January.

If holidays are not important why celebrate them? If they are, why celebrate New Year's on the wrong date of January 1st? Why celebrate Easter based on a resurrection on the wrong day of the week? Why celebrate the resurrection on a day calculated using a false method which does not recognize God's new year? Why celebrate Christmas at a time which does not make sense and one which God did not record nor commanded it to be celebrated. If we are to follow him we should use his timetable and teach others. If it is worth celebrating then celebrate it right and do not mix it with error.