The earth doesn’t pass a marker post on its journey round the sun, so there’s no absolutely unarguably best and most logical time to start the year. Nevertheless, you’re right, the winter solstice, when the days start to lengthen as if the year has been reborn, is a pretty good time to start the year. My guess is that many prehistoric societies did in fact start the year at the winter solstice.

Another good and logical time to start the year is the spring equinox. Spring is the time when nature itself comes back to life after the death of winter. In fact (though most people find this very difficult to accept, as they’re so used to the year being said to start in January) right through the Middle Ages, and even into the Early Modern period, spring was the most widely accepted new year. March 1, or March 25, or Easter Day, were all very commonly accepted as New Year’s Day throughout Christendom.

I’ve just a few moments ago written an answer in which I try to explain why we start the year on Jan 1, in defiance of all logic: David Gouldstone's answer to How did we decide that December was to be the last month of the year?

Chiefly because the inauguration ceremony is the least important event that occurs on Inauguration Day.

George Washington was inaugurated for his first term on April 30, 1789, which was a relatively warm and sunny day in New York City.

The inauguration was originally supposed to take place on March 4, 1789, but there was a delay in counting the electoral votes, and it was held about 8 weeks later.

The original text of the Constitution did not set a specific date for presidential inaugurations. Congress set March 4 as the inauguration date, and every presidential election thereafter was held on March 4, with four exceptions: Inauguration Day in 1821, 1849, 1877, and 1917 fell on a Sunday, so the inauguration was postponed until the following Monday.

On April 26, 1933, the states ratified the 20th Amendment,, which states:

The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

This created a curious anomaly. President Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated for his first term on March 4, 1933. The amendment was ratified during that term, he was re-elected on November 3, 1936, and he was inaugurated for his second term on January 20, 1937. As a result, he served a full and complete term, yet that term was less than four years.

After 1937, every president was inaugurated on January 20, with three exceptions: Inauguration Day in 1957, 1985, and 2013 fell on a Sunday, so it was held the next day, a Monday.

The text of the 20th Amendment clarified a point that had never been specified before: “The terms of their successors shall begin. This indicated that there was a specific time and date for the beginning and end of presidential terms.

So, at noon on January 20, 2021, four distinct events took place:

1. Donald Trump’s term ended.
2. Joe Biden’s term began.
3. Joe Biden swore the Presidential Oath of Office, which entitled him to act as president.
4. An inauguration ceremony was held.

The calendar we use has its origins in ancient Rome, even before the Republic.

The original calendar was based on the farm-to-market cycle. It had an eight-day week, with market day at the end of the week. There were 38 such weeks. The cycle began a bit before the start of spring and ran until after the harvest. The winter period wasn’t counted as part of the calendar.

Eventually, they added two new months, January and February, to cover the winter period and they became part of the calendar. At the time, though, intercalation (the correction we currently do with leap year) was handled differently. Years were only 355 days, and every few years they added an extra month (Mercedonius) to bring things back in line.

The years were named for the consuls who served, and at some point they started appointing them at the end of the market year (the end of December). After a while, people started thinking of the years as starting in January, when the new consuls were appointed. Eventually, Julius Caesar made a calendar reform that gave us most of our familiar calendar (the difference being a simpler leap year rule that was corrected in the Gregorian calendar).

So the calendar wasn’t really meant to coincide with astronomical events, like the equinoxes or solstices. It started when farmers were able to start bringing stuff to market—a bit before the spring equinox. It got shifted to January for primarily political convenience.

The early Roman calendar used to start on March 1st, with only 10 months therein. That is why September was more properly the seventh month (Latin septem "seven") October the 8th month (octo "eight"), November the 9th (novem "nine") and December the 10th month (decem "ten"). January and February were not added until around 700 BCE by the Roman king Numa Pontilius. Soon after, the beginning of the civil year began in January because that was when two newly elected Roman consuls would begin their one-year tenure.

It was Julius Caesar who decreed January 1 as the first day of the year in 46 BCE and enforced it to remind the people of his authority and power.

However, this practice did not last after the fall of Rome. The early church frowned upon the celebration of the New Year as it was because of its pagan roots and in 567 CE January 1 was abolished by the Council of Tours as the first day of the year, and the New year was moved to different dates that were considered more appropriate: December 25, March 1, March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation or Easter(!).

It was only through the calendar reform instituted by Pope Gregory XIII that the New Year went back to January 1 in 1582, but its adoption in the West was hampered by the Reformation; as a result many Protestant countries did not adopt the reform immediately. For instance, the British (and America) did not adopt the calendar until 1752 and prior to that, they celebrated the New Year on March 25. Of course, Russia did not do the switch until after the Russian Revolution although the Russian Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar as their liturgical calendar.

You make a very good point here. You obviously live in a cold winter climate somewhere in the northern hemisphere, and I agree with you, that spring would be a much better starting point of the year for you. However consider the people living down-under in the southern hemisphere. They might object as for them it would be the start of autumn.

If we look at the history of the creation of the calendar we likely find that the Mesopotamians or Egyptians created a calendar first as they had to observe the Sun and the weather for managing their agriculture. However it was Julius Caesar who developed the then available calendar further, which became the Julian Calendar. He placed January at the front of all other months named after the god Janus, who is the god of beginnings, presiding over doors, gates and endings. He is depicted with a dual head, looking ahead, but also back. So, it came about that 1st January is the beginning of the year. The Julian calendar has later been refined by Pope Gregory XIII, and this is basically the calendar which nowadays is used almost worldwide.

You used the word “summer” in your quotes, suggesting that you either really think we call it Summer Time, which we don’t, or that you know damned well we don’t.

We call it Daylight (Saving) Time. No “summer” in the name at all. I think the British may formally or informally call it “Summer Time” but “these United Colonies are…free and independent States, … absolved of all allegiance to the British Crown”. So we don’t tell our Mother how to talk and the Mother Country doesn’t tell her grown kids how to talk.

It is far less disruptive to switch to and from Daylight Saving Time in the early hours of a Sunday than on a weekday. The country cares very much whether people arrive late to work or at school but doesn’t care much whether they arrive late at Church. Moreover, while the Equinox can fall on different days and /or dates, Sunday always — surprise — falls on a Sunday.

The advance or de-advancing of the clocks one hour twice a year does not of course “save” any daylight whatever. So astronomically and culturally, it might make more sense to call it Daylight Rearrangement Time. But that’s long, and effectively, it does sort of culturally “save” the daylight available for use in the late afternoons and evenings when most people are home from work or school. So “saving” makes a measure of sense with respect to when the sociocultural system wants to not have to use as much electricity and have daylight available for out of doors leisure activity.

Now on 4 Febuary at 39 degrees 16 minutes North Latitude, the Sun is already noticeably farther North and setting later than it was a month ago. So if we’re going to pretend we’re one time zone East of the one we’re actually in, shifting on the Second Sunday of March for a good bit of the United States makes about as much sense as any other day and more sense than most. And putting the change date to a Sunday in late March or early to mid April will often run afoul of Christian Easter, especially Western but also often Eastern Easter, when a larger number of people really do go to Church. Especially the Easter Orthodox!

The returning Sun is already on this first Sunday in Febuary so high in the sky that there’s already no sun on the foot of the bed opposite a South Window in the afternoon where Master Chief Kitty Officer Smokie likes to sleep afternoons in the Sun. And she clearly objects. But she doesn’t keep Daylight Time or Standard Time. She goes strictly by the Local Apparent Sun.

Because there is no single, generally agreed definition of when any season starts and when it ends. In any given area it is going to depend on local climate, and on tradition.

In the UK the Meteorological Office defines winter as December to February - but we also talk about the solstice as being mid-winter, but still sometimes say that winter starts at the solstice and ends at the equinox. In some Orthodox countries winter starts at Christmas and ends March 25th. In Celtic tradition winter begins on November 1st - while in other parts of Europe it begins at Martinmas (11 November). In parts of Scandinavia October 14th is the traditional start of winter.

It was Pope Gregory, the guy responsible for making the calendar we use today, that said the start of the new year was January 1st.

For the longest time the start of the New Year was in March sometime around the Vernal Equinox or March 21st. The most popular date for the longest time was March 25th or the Feast of Annunciation.

Going back to the Romans and the Julian calendar this was when the year officially started, sometime in March. That period after December to March was considered lost time because nothing could be done. Crops couldn’t be tended. You couldn’t dig in the ground because it was too hard. So why bother recording anything if that time is just “there”. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar and the calendar that bears his name that that time was given a name and we got January and February.

Who says it is? Many meteorologists say spring begins on March 1st, at least in the northern hemisphere. Of course, the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. What does happen on or around the 21st of March is a phenomenon known as the northward equinox. At this moment day and night are roughly equal around the globe, as the Earth’s axis is in a neutral position with regard to the sun — not tilted. It’s called northward because after this moment the north pole will be more and more tilted toward the sun with each passing day until the northern solstice, which occurs around June 21st. Astronomers define this season as spring, and for some reason that definition has made its way to American calendars. You’d think the meteorological definition would be more relevant to us earthbound creatures. Go figure!

Who's version of Spring (season) - Wikipedia will we use?

Meteorological spring starts on 1 March in the northern hemisphere and 1 September in the southern hemisphere. Astronomical spring starts 23 March in the North and 23 September in the south.

Already we have four dates for spring but they are all based on a temperate European climate. I see in the Wikipedia article that in the Chinese and Celtic tradition spring begins in February. I live in the Arctic and our spring doesn't start until May or June. There are a lot of different days based on culture.

Of course we could use the Swedish version. There would be no set date, it would change yearly and different places in a single country would have a different date.

The answer of this question is rather complicated though…

1 January was first adopted as the start of the year in 153 BC by the Romans.

In 567, The Council of Tours abolished the status of 1 January as the New Year’s Day. The New Year was celebrated in various dates, from 25 March, 25 December, and 1 March.

In 1582, the Greogrian reform restored 1 January as the New Year’s Day. However, the re-adoption of 1 January varied by region. Britain, for example, still started the year on 25 March until 1751. They switched the New Year to 1 January in 1752, as well as adopting the Gregorian calendar later that year.

Some Asian countries adopted 1 January as New Year as part of their westernisation attempt. Japan, for example, started celebrating New Year on 1 January instead on traditional various Chinese New Year Date in 1873.

New Year's Day - Wikipedia

The Astronomical Seasons

The natural rotation of Earth around the sun forms the basis for the astronomical calendar, in which we define seasons with two solstices and two equinoxes

People have used observable periodic natural phenomena to mark time for thousands of years. The natural rotation of Earth around the sun forms the basis for the astronomical calendar, in which we define seasons with two solstices and two equinoxes. Earth’s tilt and the sun’s alignment over the equator determine both the solstices and equinoxes.

The equinoxes mark the times when the sun passes directly above the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice falls on or around June 21, the winter solstice on or around December 22, the vernal or spring equinox on or around March 21, and the autumnal equinox on or around September 22. These seasons are reversed but begin on the same dates in the Southern Hemisphere.

Because Earth actually travels around the sun in 365.24 days, an extra day is needed every fourth year, creating what we know as Leap Year. This also causes the exact date of the solstices and equinoxes to vary. Additionally, the elliptical shape of Earth’s orbit around the sun causes the lengths of the astronomical seasons to vary between 89 and 93 days. These variations in season length and season start would make it very difficult to consistently compare climatological statistics for a particular season from one year to the next. Thus, the meteorological seasons were born.

The Meteorological Seasons

Meteorologists and climatologists break the seasons down into groupings of three months based on the annual temperature cycle as well as our calendar

We generally think of winter as the coldest time of the year and summer as the warmest time of the year, with spring and fall being the transition seasons, and that is what the meteorological seasons are based on.

Meteorological spring includes March, April, and May; meteorological summer includes June, July, and August; meteorological fall includes September, October, and November; and meteorological winter includes December, January, and February, with the expected reversals for the Southern Hemisphere.

Meteorological observing and forecasting led to the creation of these seasons, and they are more closely tied to our monthly civil calendar than the astronomical seasons are. The length of the meteorological seasons is also more consistent, ranging from 90 days for winter of a non-leap year to 92 days for spring and summer. By following the civil calendar and having less variation in season length and season start, it becomes much easier to calculate seasonal statistics from the monthly statistics, both of which are very useful for agriculture, commerce, and a variety of other purposes.

from NOAA

I would like to start a campaign to celebrate the New Year in the spring, maybe the Spring Equinox or even April 1st. Start the New Year when the Earth is waking from hibernation n there is growth n renewal n brighter evenings. It makes no sense to have it on January 1st, a week after Christmas when people have spent all their money n are going into hibernation mode instead of in the mood for more partying on a cold, dark, miserable night. Seeing the New Year in is highly significant n symbolical. The “Out with the Old n in with the New” makes much more sense in the spring, leaving the cold darkness of winter behind n welcoming the warm brightness of the Sun.

We define astronomical spring at the spring equinox. This is an instant in time defined by the relationship between the earth’s orbit/tilt and the passing of the sun across the ecliptic plane.

It actually occurs on March 20 (UTC) this year. But it’s just a few hours past midnight UTC, which is still March 19 for most folks west of the prime meridian. As we tend to be U.S.-centric in these things…for us…it’s still March 19.

Also note that our leap year causes a .75 day regression of the equinox (and solstice) compared to the prior year. We do this because a non-leap year causes a .25 (about six hours) day progression. Next year it will be about six hours ahead, the year thereafter, another six (12 hours) ,and the year thereafter another six (or 18 hours). Before it gets to a 24 hours offset (one day of slip)…LEAP YEAR in 2024…and we yank it back again.

Edit: A point of clarification. I say we “yank” the equinox back. This is purely a vernacular thing identifying the equinox relative to our calendar. I find it easier to explain in terms of the equinox slipping or progressing on the calendar rather than the calendar slipping or progressing against the equinox. In reality, it is our calendar that slips or progresses. We have ZERO control of the equinox…we can’t yank it back or push it forward…literally. It falls where it falls and there isn’t anything we can do about it. But we can observe when it falls and compute the interval between the related events (equinoxes and solstices). And then we move our calendar so that the equinox falls within a certain window of days on our calendar. But it’s us moving the calendar (via leap years) to catch the equinox, not us moving the equinox to catch the calendar.

The Romans used January 1 as the date new consul terms started even in the lunisolar calendar they used before Julius Caesar imposed the Julian calendar in 45 BC. The featured has carried over through calendar reforms ever since.

Caesar’s calendar reform should have put the spring equinox on March 25, although it slipped to March 21 by the Council of Nicaea which fixed Easter rules. It was kind of a secons beginning of the year, and somehow the Church seized on it (as Annunciation), after it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. This lasted in the Middle Ages, and various countries returned to January 1 at different times (the UK the year before they adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752),

Meteorological spring, which is the months of March, April and May lasts 92 days [this never changes but astronomical spring which is from the vernal equinox [March 20 or 21] until the eve of the summer solstice [June 19, 20 or 21] varies, but assuming a March 20 equinox and a June 20 solstice [so a June 19 eve of solstice] - the 2024 dates - so astronomical spring also lasts 92 days this year, but this can vary by +/-2 days depending on the actual date of the equinox and solstice.

Additional facts the autumnal equinox will fall on September 22 and the winter solstice on December 21 this year, both can vary by +/- a day or two. Dates are for GMT+1 timezone for the summer solstice and autumnal equinox and GMT for the vernal equinox and winter solstice, the times which apply in Britain on the dates.