On New Year's Day and Other Arbitrary Dating
Unlike the seasons, which at least make some sort of sense in how they are arranged[1], the New Year seems so arbitrary. Other cultures set their New Year to a particular historic event. I would imagine -- though I do not know for sure -- that some cultures have the New Year fall at some logical point based on the length of the daylight hours or how close the moon is to the earth. Sure, the Gregorian Calendar is better than the Julian one, but it still seems pretty foolish. Couldn't we have done better? I know I'm picky about such things, but when choosing arbitrary dates, could we at least try to make them a little bit logical?