Do you know about the legendary Baby New Year? 

Now that Christmas is over and New Year awaits, it is time for us to move on from Santa Claus and focus on Baby New Year. Wait, Baby New Year? What’s that? Well, just like Santa Claus is the most important symbol linked with Christmas, Baby New Year is the ultimate symbol for New Year. In fact, he is a personified figure who arrives during the New Year and is often portrayed through cartoons. Eager to know more? Keep reading! 

All about Baby New Year 
If you come across the figure of a baby boy wearing nothing but a diaper, a top hat and a sash upon his torso around the New Year, know that you have met the legendary Baby New Year. Apart from the stereotypical representation of a baby, the Baby New Year often carries the numerical of the year he is representing. If you were thinking that the Baby New Year is a newborn, that isn’t entirely true. Rather, he is a toddler who is often seen standing up on his own, crawling or barely walking, occasionally portraying minute amount of blond hair, just like a normal human infant does. Baby New Year at times also holds an hourglass and a noisemaker to ascertain time of different New Year related activities and traditions.  

Baby New Year has existed since 600 B.C. and was first seen in ancient Greece. However, he became part of the modern-day popular culture when he was immortalised on the New Year cover of Saturday Evening Post by illustrator J. C. Leyendecker in 1907.  

Legends surrounding Baby New Year 
According to legends, the Baby New Year is an infant during the start of a New Year but rapidly matures into an elderly man by the end of the year. Interestingly, no one knows or keeps track of his age throughout the year. All everyone knows is that he starts off the year as a baby and turns into an old man when the year is ending. Okay, so what happens when a particular year ends? Well, he hands over his reins and duties to the next Baby New Year and retires. Legends also have it that the Baby New Year gets to know about all major events of the year, chronicles and even presides over the year, while making predictions for the next year. Throughout history, he has represented the birth of the new year and the passing of the old year. People also believe that the Baby New Year symbolises rebirth as it is the same year that is born again and again.  

Interestingly, Baby New Year is deemed as the child of Father Time, a personification of time who appears at the end of a year and is depicted as an old, bearded man dressed in a robe, who carries a scythe and an hourglass for timekeeping. He is often seen displaying his silvery wings that has a sash containing the numbers of the preceding year. There are also others who believe that Father Time is the grown Baby New Year from the previous year and passes on the wisdom and knowledge he acquired year-round to the new Baby New Year. Together, they represent passage of time, letting go of the past and embracing the present while awaiting the future.  

Title of Baby New Year 
Apart from being a mythical figure, the Baby New Year also refers to a title given to the first-born baby in any place (city, town, village etc.) in a certain year. This baby is regarded as the official Baby New Year for that year and can be both male and female, in contrast to Baby New Year, who is always a boy.