Among the Slavs, the word “summer” meant “year”. Therefore, time was measured not by “years”, but by “years”. The most important dates for them were related to the sun:
March 22 is the vernal equinox.
June 22 is the longest day of the year.
September 22 is the day of the autumnal equinox.
December 22 is the winter solstice.
These dates, tied to astronomy, carried a very important meaning for the Slavs. The life and activities of the peasants depended on them.
And only he is nourished by the knowledge of a certain community, which at the end of the year carries to the gods. I want to emphasize that this is not just a piece of wood. The tree needs to grow slowly, because the plate is not light. This is the simplest and most valuable tree. He had to be pulled out, kneaded, cooked to be shaken, beaten, played or not. Marked days, months, signs. It is written for thanksgiving gods.
The expression of the material deity expresses gratitude for the donation of the past year. From the first to the last day of the day, adult and obsolete, full of knowledge and experience of social life, Tabal is not dead, but full of events of the year, which show everyone in the temptation of every house, thereby strengthening it, burying it, calling everyone to his funeral, release , sacrifices of heaven to the gods.
The equinoxes and solstices were easily determined by the peasants on the horizon. Therefore, setting certain guidelines, people accurately recorded the beginning of a new “summer”, turns to increase or decrease daylight hours. Such knowledge has been accumulated by the people for millennia, and the peasants lived in accordance with them.
Karachun - Winter Solstice
And here is another good proof that this is a board for a specific purpose. Skills were more than expected. Maybe it's time to discover a new life and other customs. With its new features. This attribute of the ritual in different countries. In the end, as the holidays draw near, customs seem authentic. And for those who have forgotten the real custom, this is a pill that is faster to get rid of this stink. Ultimately, the table changes appearance. From a wide thick board it turns into any piece of wood, a branch, fraud.
First of all, because they do not have such an oak tree, there simply is no one else who would do this, no longer a calculator, a chronicler of those days. And now the "art exhibitions" of cities offer a sacred tree, like a person, to break his legs, swing, beat a tree, thus expressing his suffering, aggression and sacrificing it. The recipient talks about the joy of the celebration. “Gathered relatives and neighbors should have fun.” Tabal or Sea are not destroyed by anger and aggression, they are revered by fire, rejoice.
The winter solstice was called Karachun, on which miracles take place: the sun turns in the spring and daylight begins to add. They celebrated the beginning of Christmas time - the birth of light. This is a time of struggle for the power of Yavi and Navi, which ended with the victory of Kolyada.
Kolyada is a Slavic deity meaning the rebirth of the sun. This god gave people a system of calculating time, as well as his instructions, which are called the Slavic Vedas. Even the word "calendar" means "Kolyady Dar."
To be happy, to be happy, is an expression of joy through customs. Well, we do not have this deprecated table. Now, before we make the actual table for the coming year, with all its mythical power, we will throw our paper calendars with all the reports made there. Our work is here all year round. Thank you for the grace given last year for these graces, we will offer them as a tab for our gods. It is hard to even say who had the style of a priest, or the heart of a priest, crossing a hollow young, most beautiful, most straight oak.
Christmas time was noisy and fun. These days glorified Kolyada, burned Winter, led round dances. At home, they prepared a large number of delicious dishes, among which was “cool” - a tribute to the ancestors. Later “kolyvo” was renamed into kutya and began to be connected directly with Christianity.
It was customary to dress in animal skins, which symbolized wealth and prosperity. The mummers went into the huts, in which candles were burning in the windows - a sign indicating that they were waiting for them. The participants of the ceremony laugh and sing “carols” - ritual songs that promised the owners a rich harvest and prosperity for the whole year. They also asked for refreshments, told funny stories, danced. Isn't that how it looks like a later celebration of the Nativity of Christ?
These days it was customary to guess, since it was believed that many “Navii” walk around the Earth at this time and reveal the future. We tried to find out the future with the help of mirrors, prophetic dreams, a ring. We went to the crossroads to hail a passerby, threw a boot behind the gate, pulled a log from the barn. Based on the results, they judged about a future marriage or harvest, there will be a hungry or well-fed life, who will live to the next Christmas time and who will not.
An oak table is not the evil embodiment of some of today's imagination, but the greatest kindness. And it is towed not to the streets, but to pure nature, to a sacred place for sacrifice. This table is played for the last time, the last time the table invites everyone. This year, our joy and love are accumulated, written, important meetings, baptisms, weddings, funerals are accepted. The annual calendar of our lives is a message to the gods.
Thanks to the gods for the grace granted. Soon the table will go through the fire that has been with us all year with our ancestors, the gods, will become the god of time, from time to time knowing us, burning an intermediary between people and heaven. Pull it three times on a tree on a table so that evil overtakes you.
Most often, fortune-tellers were engaged in a bathhouse or in the attic. It was believed that it was there that the largest number of spirits. This tradition has survived to the present day: it did not succumb to destruction by either the churches or the government.
How the ancient Slavs celebrated the New Year
Ancient Slavs celebrated New Year on the vernal equinox, which corresponded to the beginning of the heyday of spring, the revival of nature. The chronology was carried out “from the creation of the world”, that is, from the conclusion of the world between the Great Race and the Great Dragon, as ancient China was called. On New Year's Day, peasants prepared for a new sowing season, prayed to the gods so that the crops would sprout safely and yield a rich harvest. Rituals were performed in the fields.
Later, the beginning of new years began to be met in September on the day of the autumnal equinox: the harvest was completed, the bins were filled and the time for weddings began. People prayed and conspiracy thanked the gods for their kindness, nature for their generosity and asked for well-being for families. All ordinances held were deeply spiritual.
Tsar Peter I decided not to celebrate the New Year, but New Year, do it on January 1, and count from Christmas. Thus, imitating Europe, he turned 7208 into 1700 and threw about six thousand years out of the history of the Slavs. This decree ousted the people's Slavic calendar from the minds of people, thereby depressing the national mentality of the people, established long before the baptism of Russia.
New Year Replacement for New Year
Thus, the New Year was replaced by the New Year.
The Tsar’s court, as a rule, did not know Russian well, considering it the language of peasants and naughty people. To know among themselves, she spoke in German, Dutch or French, in which the word God was translated as "God." That is, “New Year” meant “New God,” the birth of a new deity.
Although this change has not squeezed everything out of the memory of the people: descriptions of events have remained under the name “annals” - descriptions of years. And we ask the question of age, asking how many years, and not years.
The date of the first of January also appeared not by chance, since Christmas was celebrated in Europe at that time and Peter decided to creatively eliminate paganism from the people: to replace another with one holiday. True, the result was not a replacement, but a union.
Slavic names of the months were replaced by Latin. For example, Beloyar became March; The "wicket", when everything blooms, turned into April; Zhovten, the period of yellowing of the leaves, corresponds to October. In Russian, these names were no longer used, but in Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish they are still used.
Until Peter I, all dates in chronicles and books were written in letters (capital letter), but the king ordered to replace them with numbers. Long before Cyril and Methodius, the Slavs had a written language: runic, ideogram, slavic, prakyrilitsa. This information was contrary to the tales of the "illiteracy of the Gentiles", so the king tried to hide it by making replacements and rewriting some documents. Later, these methods were picked up by Catherine II, although she acknowledged that the Slavs were literate long before Christ.
As we see, if the Slavs tied their important events to astronomical dates, to those that they could see and check, then Peter I chose, in principle, a meaningless number.
Another confusion arose in Russia with the reform after the 1917 revolution. The Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, and thus switched to " new style". The difference between the calendars is thirteen days; therefore, in 1918, immediately after January 31, February 14 came. Asleep at home on the last January day, the next morning people woke up in mid-February. Although this time the church did not support the government and remained on julian calendar. Hence the discrepancies between church and secular dates.
September 22, 2015, the 7524 summer “from the creation of the world” began according to the Slavic reckoning, and people who have preserved ancient traditions offer prayers to the Slavic gods, asking them to bestow prosperity on their families and prosperity to the state.
Information for your reference.
Opinion of the editorial "Russian World"
may not coincide with the opinion of the authors of articles
On January 1, the world officially entered 2016. However, in our multinational country, you can celebrate a new year almost every month. Evenks celebrate the holiday in June, Uzbeks, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, part of the Dagestan peoples in March, Kalmyks, Buryats and Tuvans in February, Yezidis in April. The peoples of Russia differ not only the dates of the holiday, but even the chronology!
By slavic the calendar now continues to 7524. New year russians they would have celebrated in September if on December 19, 7208, from the creation of the world, Peter the Great had not signed the decree that introduced the new chronology - from the birth of Christ. The king also set a new day for the beginning of the year (January 1) - and a new order of celebration. The innovations coincided with the big winter Christmas time and successfully took root along with the holidays, carnivals, fireworks and coniferous decorations. However, Slavic pagans and pomors still celebrate the new year in September - with ceremonies and torchlight processions.
Jews this year marked 5776 year since the creation of the world. Rosh Hashanah, in translation - the head of the year, falls on the first day of the month of Tishrei. According to the lunar Jewish calendar, this is usually mid-September or early October.
Most Russian caucasian peoples as well tatars, uzbeks and tajiks profess Islam. According to the Islamic calendar, the Hijra - the new year 1437 - came at sunset on October 15, 2015. Muslims reckon on the date of the resettlement of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina.
Buryats, kalmyks and tuvans Together with the rest of the Buddhist world, they celebrated the advent of the New Year 2558 in February. In Buddhist tradition, the New Year is celebrated on the first spring new moon on the lunar calendar - between the end of January and mid-March. The beginning of the reckoning is carried out from the year of the departure of Buddha Gautama to nirvana and is 543 years ahead of the usual Gregorian one.
By zoroastrian a calendar familiar with Russian yezidis, 6760 came this spring. However, many Zoroastrians take 1737 BC as the starting point of Zarathustra’s religion, the beginning of the Zoroastrian era of the Aries era. According to their calculation, on the day of the spring equinox of 2016, 3754 will come.
As you can see, different religions and traditions have their own views on the countdown. The most radical followers of various faiths urge not to celebrate the global New Year and adhere to their calendar. However, even if you belong to them and did not celebrate a secular holiday this year, there is nothing wrong with congratulating your neighbor and friend. And not only on December 31, but also on the day of the new year of his people.
Anna Bryzgalova