quality:corruption, information:extraction
Origin

The origin of the New Year is connected to the beginning of the economic year in the agricultural societies of the ancient Near East. The New Year was the beginning of the cycle of sowing, growth, and harvest; the harvest was marked by its own set of major agricultural festivals. Semitic speakers generally set the beginning of the new year in autumn, while other ancient civilizations chose spring for that purpose, such as the Persians or Greeks; the primary reason was agricultural in both cases, the time of sowing the seed and bringing in the harvest.

Some scholars posit a connection between the Babylonian festival Akitu and Rosh Hashanah, as there are some striking similarities. The Akitu festival of Ur was celebrated in the beginning of Nisanu (first month), which lasted at least five days, and again in Tashritu, the seventh month, which lasted eleven days. Akitu was also strongly tied to the creation myth of Enuma Elish and the victory of Marduk over the sea monster Tiamat, and the creation of the universe from her corpse. Similarly it is said that the world was created on Rosh Hashanah.