According to modern Christian tradition the beginning of the year starts from January the 1rst. This occurs from about two hundred fifty years earlier when the Western world was found in approving the agreement would only rule for measuring time in the wake of a custom coded by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.
In Tuscany, for example, in the past there was no uniformity of dates: in Florence, Lucca, Prato and Siena in the New Year was celebrated on March 25 "ab incarnatione 'domini", the day when the Christian tradition venerates the mystery of the Annunciation, that is, the conception of Mary by the holy Spirit.
In Siena, March 25th was the feast of the old hospital and its church dedicated to the Virgin of the Annunciation. Girolamo Gigli, in his Sienese Diary, describes in detail the ritual perpetuated for centuries the hospital, namely: donation of candles by the municipality, the presentation of the workers of Grance, exposition of the relics in the Chapel of Manto and veneration of the above by the Sienese people.
Based on the close relationship that always exists between the religious life and civil life of the city, the Magistrate of the Contrade in accordance with the highest civic institutions, intended to undertake a journey of reflection on the high ethical values that underpin civil coexistence, and organized on the occasion of New year Sienese the "Dialogues between Heaven and Earth", meetings offering each year to the city reflections of a leading figure of the Italian culture.Meeting place is the Hall of the Globe, inside the Public Palace. The keynote - which in 2013 was held by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, in 2014 by Professor Massimo Cacciari, and in 2015 by the theologian fr. Enzo Bianchi, prior of the monastic community of Bose - will be held this year by Monica Maggioni, president RAI