Traditions and superstitions of the old New Year

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Every year, on the night of January 13-14, Russia celebrates the most incomprehensible holiday for foreigners - the old New Year. This holiday appeared not due to historical events, but due to the discrepancy between the calendar dates in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

A bit of history

The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar many centuries ago. It was not very accurate, and over a millennium and a half the day of the vernal equinox shifted by more than a month. To bring it, as well as Christian holidays in accordance with church canons, in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Julian calendar and established a new revised calendar, adjusted for leap years, which was called Gregorian. The difference between the old and new calendars today is 13 days.

Our country switched to a new calendar only in 1918. But it turned out that it was easier to make an amendment to the calendars than to shift folk traditions: for a long time, people stubbornly wanted to celebrate the New Year in the same way as their parents.

The whole point was that January 1 used to be an important Orthodox holiday - Basil the Great's Day, and now it has shifted to January 14. And a day earlier, that is, January 13 according to the new style, the Orthodox world honored the day of memory of the Monk Melania (Melanka), who devoted her life to serving Christ. Therefore, the night from 13 to 14 January was called Vasily's meeting with Melanka and the "generous" Vasilyev's evening was celebrated with a rich table. And so we have another holiday - the old New Year.

Festive feast

Many believers celebrate the old New Year even with b Owith greater scope and excitement, since the Christmas fast is already over and you can let yourself roam. Unlike Christmas Eve, this holiday is not a purely family holiday, it is customary to visit each other. Such trips to relatives and friends are accompanied by songs, dances, rituals of generosity and sowing. On the old New Year, they cooked more generous kutya than on Christmas Eve, seasoning it with meat and lard.

For many years there has been a tradition to make dumplings with "surprises" for the old New Year. The whole family and guests took part in the modeling, and everyone put something special in the filling: a button for a new thing, a thread for the road, a coin for money, a ring for a wedding, pepper for a thrill, sugar for a sweet life, beans - to pregnancy. As a rule, we tried to make the "surprises" portend something good in the coming year. Afterwards, they had a fun feast, looking forward to who and what surprise would fall.

Christmas divination

The Old New Year falls on Christmas time, therefore, on the night of this holiday, all kinds of fortune-telling were performed - for marriage, wealth, luck, fate.

For fortune telling for the future, you need to crumple a newspaper page, set it on fire and put it on a baking sheet.

For example, to evoke the image of the future groom, a girl must sit between two mirrors in complete darkness, light candles and peer into their reflections to see the image of the groom. You can freeze water in a spoon and look at the resulting ice: if there are bubbles in it, then this is a good sign - it portends a long happy life, but if there is a hole in the ice, then this is to grief and misfortune. For fortune telling for the future, you need to crumple a newspaper page, set it on fire and put it on a baking sheet. When the paper burns out, by the shadow cast by the ash on the wall, one can judge what awaits in the new year.

Signs and superstitions

The magical power of Vasilyev's day manifested itself in numerous omens and superstitions, some of which have survived to this day.

For example, there is a belief that on the morning of January 14, a man should be the first to enter the house, then the year will turn out to be successful, if a woman enters, it will lead to trouble. Also, on the old New Year and on Vasilyev's evening, you cannot lend anything, otherwise you can spend the whole year without money. If you count a trifle on this holiday, then you will shed tears all year, and if you take out the trash, you will take out happiness from home. If you slap on your holiday clothes, then financial and personal problems can arise in the coming year.

On Basil, it was customary to bake cookies in the form of pets and birds, it was believed that this protects livestock from adversity.

Old New Year's Eve is a kind of weather forecast for the whole year: if the sky is starry and there is a lot of snow, spring will be early, and the harvest will be good; hard frost - don't expect spring before May; strong wind - dry and hot summer; thick fog - there will be a fruitful year.

To attach importance to signs or not - everyone decides for himself. The main thing is to remember that you need to believe only in the good, and it will definitely come, no matter what.