Former Guber Candidate Faults Celebrating January 1 as New Year Day

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

The Chief Priest of Eledumare Ministry, Chief Owolabi Salis, has criticised celebrating January 1 as New Year day, saying it has an English origin.

Salis, who was the gubernatorial candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State in 2019, in a statement made available in Ibadan, Oyo State, said it is idolism, and whoever worships idols, stones, woods or human beings submits his or her soul to it.

According to him, all the major religions claimed to be directed by one God who is consistent but they all have different calendars, including new year, with different rules and so on.

He said: “One will allow you eat pork, another will condemned that you should not. One will direct that you should not work on Sunday, Saturday or Friday, another will direct that you work on Sunday, Saturday or Friday. We do not know the one that is right, and they all claim to come from one God who is consistent.” 

“One uses the solar calendar, others use the lunar calendar, and so they all have different New Year.”

He maintained that if truly January 1 was named after Janus, a Roman god of beginning and doorways, then celebrating January 1 means celebrating the birth of that Roman god.

The former aspirant said: “Many other religions have said no to January 1 but have different dates. When did the planet earth start revolving around the sun? None of them can say with certainty the day, using the solar calendar, when the earth starts revolving around the sun. The chance that it is January 1 is 1:365.25 because we have 365.25 days in a year. What we are all sure of is our new year day, and that is our birthdays.

“All these inconsistencies are what is called religious programming or religious racing; every religion sells its idea to gain more membership. They scare people with messages like “If you don’t follow me, you will go to hell.”

Salis added that one of the objectives of Eledumare Ministry was to recover devotees from stories of men and imposed bondages that are inflicting on the people’s spiritual problems.

He said: “Everyone born with a soul is a member of the ministry but may not be a devotee. The ministry is founded by Eledumare, the Lord God Almighty Himself, we are just promoters.”