New Year’s Day, referred to as the Feast of the Circumcision by Roman Catholics, is a Holy Day of Obligation (a day on which Catholics must attend Mass).  On this day, eight days after Christmas, Jesus was circumcised (as required by Jewish Law, Genesis 17:10) and received his name (Luke 2:21).

The Catholic faith holds that once Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophesy (i.e., satisfied the requirements of the ‘old’ covenant), salvation became a possibility.   Thus, New Year’s  becomes a sort of eighth day of creation: Adam and his world were created in the first 7, while man as he will be in the world to come is made possible on the 8th.  Remember, though, that salvation turned on Mary and Joseph observing a Jewish tradition by circumcising their son.  By doing so, they set the groundwork for a new covenant, one in which the rite of circumcision was replaced with the sacrament of baptism.