A Short Walk Through the History of New Years
Again God has accomplished what He began during the week of Creation:
Then God said,
“Let there be lights
in the expanse of the heavens
to separate the day from the night,
and let them be for signs
and for seasons
and for days
and years . . .”
Genesis 1:14
God has given us the new year of 2024. Let’s look back at some other new years He has given.
For New Year’s Day in 1869, artist Winslow Homer illustrated “Father Time” taking the old year away in a wheelbarrow while a small boy riding a bicycle through a hoop represents the new year.
The New Year – 1869 by Winslow Homer
Published by Harper & Bros.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution,
Gift of John Goldsmith Phillips, Jr.
That same year Harper’s Bazar published this Homer illustration of women waiting for calls on New Year’s Day.
Waiting for Calls on New Year’s Day by Winslow Homer,
from Harper’s Bazar, January 2, 1869.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,
The Ray Austrian Collection, gift of Beatrice L. Austrian,
Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian
Harper’s published this Homer drawing the next year.
Another Year by the Old Clock by Winslow Homer,
from Harper’s Bazar, January 1, 1870
Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,
The Ray Austrian Collection, gift of Beatrice L. Austrian,
Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian
This piece of ephemera is from a New Year’s Day dinner held by the Clegg Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1906.
Courtesy of the Frank Buttolph Collection at the New York Public Library.
In 1914 artist Helen Hyde created this painting titled New Year’s Day in Tokyo.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Gift of Hyde Gillette in memory of
Mabel Hyde Gillette and Edwin Fraser Gillette.
Sometime between 1942 and 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy F. Leuellen sent this Christmas and New Year’s greeting printed in Hawaii.
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution National Postal Museum.
And here’s a silly New Year’s picture of Ray and me from a few years ago.
I pray for God’s blessings on you and all those you love during this new year and may we give this new year that He has given to us back to Him.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Psalm 103:1