family vault of the Londonderrys; there are also the parish church and Presbyterian church, with lofty spires, and a Roman Catholic chapel. In the neighbourhood there are freestone quarries.
The town owes its origin to a Dominican monastery founded in 1244 by Walter de Burgh. It was forfeited by the O’Neills, and given to the Hamiltons and Montgomeries, from whom it passed to the marquess of Londonderry. It received a charter from James I., and until the Union in 1800 returned two members to parliament. The ruined abbey of Moville, 112 m. N.E., is the most notable of the many ecclesiastical remains in the neighbourhood. It is attributed to St Finian (c. 550).
NEW ULM, a city and the county seat of Brown county,
Minnesota, U.S.A., on the S. bank of the Minnesota river,
88 m. (by rail) S.W. of Minneapolis, in the south central part
of the state. Pop. (1905, state census) 5720 (1287 of German
birth); (1910) 5648. New Ulm is served by the Minneapolis
& St Louis, and the Chicago & North Western railways.
In the south-western part of the city, on a wooded hill called
Hermann Heights, there is a statue of Arminius erected by the
Grand Lodge of Hermann’s Sons of the United States. New
Ulm is an important livestock market. The city is the seat of
the Dr Martin Luther College (Lutheran, 1884), a secondary
school, with a normal and a collegiate department. St Michael’s
Academy and St Alexander Hospital are under the charge of
Roman Catholic sisters. New Ulm was settled about 1853,
and was twice attacked and almost destroyed by the Indians
during the Sioux uprising of 1862. There is a monument to
those who lost their lives in the Sioux massacres.
NEW WASHINGTON, a town of the province of Capiz, island
of Panay, Philippine Islands, on the N. coast about 17 m. W.
of Capiz, the capital of the province. The town was formed in
1903 by uniting the towns of Batan, Jimeno, Balete and the
village or barrio of Lagatic in the town of Calibo; the total
population at that time was 24,480. There are about sixty-six
barrios, but all of these except Lagatic, the seat of the municipal
government, had in 1903 less than 1000 inhabitants. The
language is Visayan. The cultivation of rice, sugar cane, hemp,
and Indian corn and the raising of cattle and horses are the
principal industries.
NEW WESTMINSTER, a city on the north bank of the Fraser river, British Columbia, 15 m. from the mouth. Pop. (1906
estimate) 7900. Founded in 1859 it was the capital of British
Columbia when the British possessions on the Pacific coast
formed two colonies—i.e. British Columbia (the mainland
portion) and Vancouver Island. The city is accessible to oceangoing
ships of 16 ft. draught. It is the chief centre of the farming
country of the lower Fraser and has a small export lumber trade.
In 1898 the greater portion of the business part of the city was
destroyed by fire, and though much of it was rebuilt, the establishment
of the city of Vancouver, only 12 m. distant, seriously
affected its growth. It is connected with Vancouver by an
electric railway. The Great Northern railway, connecting with
Seattle and other points in the state of Washington, here crosses
the Fraser river by a fine bridge.
NEW YEAR’S DAY, the first day of the year. In the Gregorian
calendar this date occurs twelve days earlier than in the Julian;
thus in Russia, Greece, &c., where the latter is still employed,
New Year’s Day is celebrated on the English 13th of January.
The ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians and Persians began their
year at the autumnal equinox (Sept. 21) and the Greeks until
the 5th century B.C. at the winter solstice (Dec. 21). In 432 B.C.
the latter altered their New Year’s Day to the 21st of June.
The ancient Romans celebrated the beginning of the year on the
21st of December, but Caesar by the adoption of the Julian
calendar postponed it to the 1st of January. The Jews have
always reckoned their civil year from the first day of the month
of Tishri (Sept. 6–Oct. 5), but their ecclesiastical year begins at
the spring equinox (March 21). The 25th of March was the
usual date among most Christian peoples in early medieval days.
In Anglo-Saxon England, however, the 25th of December was
New Year’s Day. At the Norman Conquest owing, it is believed,
to the coincidence of his coronation being arranged for that date,
William the Conqueror ordered that the year should start on the
1st of January. But later England began her year with the rest
of Christendom on the 25th of March. The Gregorian calendar
(1582), which restored the 1st of January to its position as New
Year’s Day, was accepted by all Catholic countries at once;
by Germany, Denmark and Sweden about 1700, but not until
1751 by England.
The Romans, after the adoption of the Julian calendar, kept the 1st of January as a general holiday. Sacrifices were made to Janus; gifts and visits were exchanged, and masquerading and feasting were general. Congratulatory presents were made to the magistrates who entered upon office on this day. The emperors at the new year exacted from their subjects tribute of a pound of gold. This quasi-present was called strena, a term (extended to all New Year’s gifts in Rome) traditionally derived from a custom initiated by the legendary King Tatius, to whom branches of vervain gathered in the sacred Grove of Strenua, the goddess of strength, were presented as a good omen on the first day of the year 747 B.C. The imperial strenae later became so excessive that Claudius found it necessary to limit the amount by formal decree.
Participation in the ordinary New Year’s Day observances as well as in the Saturnalia of December was from the first discouraged by the Church. Christians were expected to spend the day in quiet meditation, reading of scripture and acts of charity. When about the 5th century the 25th of December had become a fixed festival commemorative of the Nativity, the 1st of January assumed a specially sacred character as the octave of Christmas Day and as the anniversary of the Circumcision. As such it still figures in the calendars of the various branches of the Eastern and Western Church, though only as a feast of subordinate importance. The first mention of it in Christian literature as a feast occurs in Canon 17 of a council which met at Tours in 567.
The custom of giving and receiving strenae for luck at the New Year survives in France (where New Year’s Day is known as le jour d’étrenues) and the Continent generally. In England its place has been taken by the Christmas-gift. In Scotland, where New Year’s Day is more generally observed than Christmas, the custom is still universal. The Persians celebrated the beginning of the year by exchanging presents of eggs. The Druids distributed as New Year’s gifts branches of the sacred mistletoe. In Anglo-Saxon and Norman England New Year’s gifts were common. According to Matthew Paris, Henry III. followed the Roman precedent by extorting New Year’s gifts from his subjects. These in later reigns became voluntary but none the less obligatory on those who wished to stand well with the throne. The custom reached its climax in Tudor times. Wolsey one New Year gave Henry VIII. a gold cup valued at £117, 17s. 6d. in the coinage of that time. An MS. account is preserved of money gifts given to King Henry by all classes of his subjects on New Year’s Day 1533. The total reached many thousands. Bishop Latimer, however, handed Henry instead of a purse a New Testament with a leaf doubled down at Hebrews xiii. 4, as apposite to the king’s then impending marriage with Anne Boleyn. In Edward VI.’s time, if not earlier, it was usual for the sovereign to give “rewards” to those who presented New Year’s gifts. Elizabeth is related to have been most conscientious in this regard. The custom of offering New Year’s gifts to the sovereign became obsolete during the Commonwealth and was not revived at the Restoration.
NEW YORK, one of the original thirteen United States of
America, situated between 40° 29′ 40″ and 45° 0′ 2″ N., and
between 71° 51′ and 79° 45′ 54·4″ W. Its northern boundary
is, for the most part, formed by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence
river, which separate it from the province of Ontario,
Canada; but north of the Adirondacks the boundary line leaves
the St Lawrence, extending in a due east direction to the lower
end of Lake Champlain. Thus the boundary between New York
and the province of Quebec, Canada, is wholly artificial.
Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut bound New York on
