The first recorded New Year's celebration dates back 4,000 years to Babylon, when the first moon after the spring equinox marked a new year. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar created a calendar with Jan. 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honour Janus, the month's namesake.  The first known record of New Year's celebrations began about 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. This occurred at the time of the vernal equinox, which is toward the end of March. Babylonians would have a religious festival named Akitu taken from the Sumerian term for barley.