The Baby New Year is a personification of the start of the New Year commonly seen in editorial cartoons . He symbolizes the "birth" of the next year and the "passing" of the prior year; in other words, a "rebirth". Baby New Year's purpose varies by myth, but he generally performs some sort of ceremonial duty over the course of his year such as chronicling the year's events or presiding over the year as a symbol .
8-397: Early known instances of having babies as parts of new years traditions date back to ancient greece. Modern use was popularized at the beginning of the 20th century. The myth most associated with him is that he is a baby at the beginning of his year, but Baby New Year quickly ages until he is elderly (like Father Time , with whom he is often associated) at the end of his year. Very rarely is
16-436: A diaper , a top hat and a sash across his torso that shows the year he is representing (e.g. 2024). He is sometimes depicted holding or associated with an hourglass , a noisemaker , or other item either pertaining to time or New Year's Day festivities. Often, he is not a complete newborn but instead more closely resembles a toddler , because he is frequently shown standing on his own, crawling or barely walking, or having
24-485: A Baby New Year public due to concerns that the infant will become a target for criminals. Father Time Father Time is a personification of time . In recent centuries he is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, sometimes with wings , dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device. As an image, the origins of "Father Time" are varied. The ancient Greeks themselves began to associate Chronos Protogenos with
32-661: A small amount of (usually blond) hair. In addition to being a mythical figure, the title of "Baby New Year" is sometimes given to living people. The first baby born in any village or city in a certain year may be honored by being labeled as the official Baby New Year for that year. The official Baby New Year can be male or female, even though the mythical Baby New Year is nearly always male. Attempts to name an official Baby New Year for an entire country have sometimes been made, but generally there are multiple contenders and no single Baby New Year can be confirmed. There has however been some who have come close. Numerous hospitals no longer make
40-462: Is often depicted revealing or unveiling the allegorical Truth, sometimes at the expense of a personification of Falsehood, Fraud, or Envy. This theme is related to the idea of veritas filia temporis (Time is the father of Truth). Father Time is an established symbol in numerous cultures and appears in a variety of art and media. In some cases, they appear specifically as Father Time while in other cases they may have another name (such as Saturn ), but
48-484: The Baby New Year depicted as any age other than a baby or as a very old man. Some stories, especially those with depictions of years past, will have him bear a strong likeness to key events in his time. At this point, he hands over his duties to the next Baby New Year, while he either dies or remains in this state and retires. The stereotypical representation of Baby New Year is as a baby boy wearing nothing more than
56-537: The god Cronos , who had the attribute of a harvester's sickle . The Romans equated Cronos with Saturn , who also had a sickle, and was treated as an old man, often with a crutch. The wings and hourglass were early Renaissance additions and he eventually became a companion of the Grim Reaper, personification of Death , often taking his scythe. He may have as an attribute a snake with its tail in its mouth , an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity. Around New Year's Eve ,
64-550: The media (in particular editorial cartoons ) use the convenient trope of Father Time as the personification of the previous year (or "the Old Year") who typically "hands over" the duties of time to the equally allegorical Baby New Year (or "the New Year") or who otherwise characterizes the preceding year. In these depictions, Father Time is usually depicted wearing a sash with the old year's date on it. Time (in his allegorical form)
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