IT is a big misconception for sub-Saharan Africans to consider January as the first month of the year.
This is because January, in Zimbabwe and other southern African nations, is a time of rain and heat which is not a characteristic of the beginning of the year.
Traditionally, a year begins in the season of spring, which is after the end of winter.
In this period, the cold retreats from the land and warmth begins to return.
Seasonal winds, such as the monsoon that blow to and from Africa and Asia, change directions in spring and in autumn.
The winds blow southwest towards Africa in October and the north east to Asia in April.
When the sun moves to the northern hemisphere, winter takes place in the south and vice-versa.
The returning of the sun facilitates for evaporation which allows withered plants to spring back to life.
In this period, is the celebration of New Year is supposed to be held and for Zimbabwe, it is not in January but around September.
In ancient times, rain-asking ceremonies were held by our ancestors during this period.
The period between the months of Nyamavhuvhu (August) and Gumiguru (October) was held sacred by our ancestors.
This season was called ‘chirimo’ and was marked by inactivity in the fields because it would be after winter and before the rains.
People would return to their rural homes to brew alcohol and make animal offerings to God (Mwari).
These were the New Year celebrations and were based on asking God for a peaceful year with good rains for sufficient agricultural produce.
This period was also set apart for mabira (offerings) and this is when family members returned to their rural homes to hold memorial services for their deceased (if they were adults with children).
Groups like the Remba would also conduct their initiation and graduation ceremonies during this period.
In the month of Mbudzi (November), none of the above ceremonies were allowed to be observed.
The zhizha season, characterised by rains, early fruits and grains, begins and peaks in Ndira (January), which is the period we are currently in.
Thus it is senseless for us to call January the beginning of our year when it is actually the second quarter of the year in the southern hemisphere.
Seasons are largely determined by the sun’s movement – if distant, it is winter; if close, it is summer.
Times, however, were not determined by the sun’s movement, but that of the moon.
The traditional calendars of many ancient civilisations, like the Chinese and Hebrew Israelites, were based on lunar instead of solar cycles.
Zimbabweans, like other Africans, counted days by the moon and thus called a complete moon cycle of about 30 days ‘mwedzi’, meaning moon.
One moon, from when it’s void of light to when it’s full and then void of light again constituted a month and this shows that days were counted using the moon cycles.
If we combine the points of winter’s end and springs’s beginning and identify the new moon of that period, then we would have found the first day of the year in Zimbabwe.
A new moon is always dark because the moon will be void of light and so, ancient groups like the Chinese and Hebrew Israelites would hold their celebrations exactly two weeks after the first day because the moon would be full and would ascend at twilight to facilitate for celebrations under the cover of moonlight.
In Ethiopia, the beginning of the year is still observed in September and not January because of the above reasons.
In the northern hemisphere, the year is supposed to begin after February, as is the case in China.
January would still be cold and spring would not have begun, thus it is not proper, even for those in the northern hemisphere, to celebrate New Years’ Day on January 1.
Due to colonisation, we inherited Western doctrines and along with them, the Gregorian or Roman calendar.
For this reason, and the impact of Western Christianity as a colonial tool, Zimbabweans and other Africans continue to celebrate Western festivals like Christmas, New Year and Easter.
Many traditional ceremonies have been annulled and even demonised and these include mabira and the rain-asking ceremonies.
New Year has also been set on an improper date and if people were to ask for rains now, it would be too late because the rain season began months ago.
Yet it is somewhat appropriate for those in the northern hemisphere to celebrate New Year in January because their spring and rain season have not yet begun.
When the sun retreats from Zimbabwe and begins heading north, evaporation and precipitation decrease and the harvest period arrives in the season called matsutso.
It is in this period that the north will be experiencing its rain season.
These differences in latitudinal and longitudinal locations as well as times ought to be accounted for before one simply follows foreign festivals, or observes traditional ones at improper times.
This phenomenon is not limited to Christian festivals.
The month of Ramadan, which usually falls in August in Arabia, is set apart as a month of fasting by Muslims.
It is the hottest month in the desert biome that is Arabia yet this is not the case in places like Zimbabwe because it will be cool and windy in August.
So, unless one is observing the Ramadan fast in Arabia, then he or she will not be observing the festival in the hottest month of the year as was done by the likes of Muhammad.
Each nation must set up its own calendar according to their specific location.
Once this is done, neighbouring countries will share common New Year dates and so on because they will be observing the same moon and sun from similar locations.
This ignorance of adopting foreign calendars is costly in that the festivities are not connected with important things like planting and harvesting times.
The ancient Hebrew Israelites, who were blacks, observed three festivities only; namely Passover (Pesahk) which marked the New Year between March and April, Sabbath or seventh month (Shavuot) which marked the first fruits of harvest in the middle of the year between September and October and finally the feast of harvest which would take place seven weeks after the offering of the first fruits.
The Hebrew calendar is thus an example of what African calendars were like because it is centred on the activity of cultivation and harvest.
It is important to note that this calendar was set up by Moses in Africa after the Israelites had spent 430 years living in Egypt since the time of Joseph.
Thus it is not surprising the Hebrew calendar, in essence, is very much similar to Africa’s traditional calendar of long ago.
The Passover was also an annual ancestral remembrance ceremony that was to be followed by all generations to come:A festive memorial of how God brought them out of Egypt.
This, also in essence, is African and is evident in the legends of Chaminuka, who the ancient Zimbabweans paid tribute to in folktale, song, prayer and poetry.
Moses also had a song paraphrasing the whole mass migration.
A return to this calendar would increase efficiency in agriculture and decrease the commercialisation of festivities.
Instead of experiencing drunkenness that leads to death by way of road accidents and the ‘January disease’ brought about by overspending during Christmas and New Years’ Day, people will only be required to return to their rural homes, rest, feast on animal and drink offerings, sing and dance to traditional songs and present samples of the grains and fruits they would have harvested after the retirement of the rains.