中国的元旦则来源于起于三皇五帝之一的颛顼，距今已有3000多年的历史。
“元旦”一词最早出现于《晋书》：“颛帝以孟夏正月为元，其实正朔元旦之春”的诗中。
中国最早称农历正月初一为“元旦”，元是“初”“始”的意思，旦指“日子”，元旦合称即是“初始的日子”，也就是一年的第一天。
西方的元旦，据说在公元前五万年左右，古埃及人定居在尼罗河流域，长期的观察中发现，河水泛滥的时间是有规律的，大约相隔365天，也就是一年。
而当尼罗河初涨的潮头到开罗城附近的时候，也正好是太阳与天狼星同时从地平线上升起的时候。于是，古埃及人便把这一天定为一年的开始。
这就是元旦最早的由来。
China's New Year's Day comes from one of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and has a history of more than 3,000 years.
The word "New Year's Day" first appeared in the "Book of Jin": "The Emperor of the Sui Dynasty took the Meng Xia Zhengyue as the Yuan, in fact, the Spring of the New Year's Day".
China first called the first day of the first lunar month as "New Year's Day". Yuan means "beginning" and "beginning". Dan refers to "days". The New Year's Day is called "the initial day", which is the first day of the year.
The New Year's Day in the West is said to have settled in the Nile Valley around 50,000 BC. In the long-term observation, it was found that the flooding time was regular, about 365 days apart, that is, one year.
When the tide of the Nile River rises near the city of Cairo, it is also the time when the Sun and Sirius rise from the horizon at the same time. Thus, the ancient Egyptians set this day as the beginning of the year.
This is the earliest origin of New Year's Day.