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Happy New Year to all - but when?

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by U10731780 (U10731780) on Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

  Happy new year to you all. However, it has always felt odd celebrating this several days after the shortest day/longest night. This is the point at which the season makes a change for a fresh start.
  
  Having read the thread "When was Jusus Christ born?", I think that the fact dates have been altered through history are not accidental. It would be naive to think that there were not political reason for separating the new christian celebrations from the old pagan ones.
  
  Does anyone kn ow how this occurred?
  
  RU

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

  Hello Roderick
  
  interesting topic.
  
  The concept of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' predates Christianity - or to be precise the 'Twelve Nights of Yule' do.
  
  As you have correctly pointed out the Winter Solstice (around our 21st December) was celebrated by pagans in ancient Europe as their New Year. In effect it was the equivalent of Christmas and New Year rolled into one.
  
  The celebrations began on the eve of midwinters day (around our 20th December) and lasted for 12 days - or 12 nights to be precise. Here is a list of the nights on a typical year:
  
  20th/21st - First Night
  21st/22nd - Second Night
  22nd/23rd - Third Night
  23rd/24th - Fourth Night
  24th/25th - Fifth Night
  25th/26th - Sixth Night
  26th/27th - Seventh Night
  27th/28th - Eighth Night
  28th/29th - Ninth Night
  29th/30th - Tenth Night
  30th/31st - Eleventh Night
  31st/1st - Twelth Night
  
  The Fifth Night (5 being an auspicious number) was a highpoint of the festival and coincides precisely with the Christian Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning (24th/25th December).
  
  As you can also see the pagan Twelfth Night coincides exactly with the modern New Years Eve/New Years Day.
  
  It was quite common with the early Christians that when they superimposed their feastdays on the existing pagans festivals they did so with a slight twist. The idea was to keep the mystery but remove the science. Whereas the pagan calendar was strictly astronomical - the superimposed Christian calendar was heavily influenced by numerology.
  
  For example the Christian church was very taken with the number 7 and the 7 day week. Whereas the pagan Easter was celebrated on the Spring Equinox - the Christian Easter was made to match 'the first Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox'. This way the date of the Christian Easter makes a nod to the Solar Calendar and to the Lunar Calendar and to the Seven Day Week - the full mystical set as it were.
  
  With the Twelve Days of Christmas they also decided that the auspicious Fifth Night would mark the beginning of the Christian festival and they then added the Epiphany (5th/6th January) as their own 'Twelth Night'.
  
  Considering this, therefore, it is indeed ironic that Christians have often accused pagans down the ages of following magical nonsense and mumbo-jumbo.

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