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New Year! Is it the one New Year?
Where did the New Year's holiday come from?
The emigrants from the Union who arrived in Israel, in addition to all the other differences in their “new life”, could not help but notice that they call the New Year here. It is celebrated in the autumn, and apart from some grandmother's stories, it did not evoke great emotions in most of the new arrivals.
But the same, familiar, “native” and beloved New Year is not celebrated, and January 1st in Israel is the most common working day, if it does not fall on Saturday. Particularly "advanced" non-religious Israelis note something gloomy called "Sylvester".
Well, where are the round dances around the Christmas tree, friendly shouts: “Christmas tree, light up!”, The smell of needles and tangerines ?! Where is everything that is so firmly imprinted in the memory?!
For my generation (born in the Soviet Union in the late sixties - early seventies), tortured by the "red days of the calendar", the New Year was a special holiday, practically the only one without subbotniks and demonstrations, family, personal, and even intimate.
They celebrated in different ways. Some are with friends and some are with family. They drank champagne to the sound of the Kremlin Chimes from the TV and the feast began. Well, then someone else drank the traditional “one hundred grams” and sat down to watch “Blue Light”, while others got up from the table and went out into the street in an hour or two ... They went for a walk around the city at night, past the Christmas trees installed in all squares. There you could have fun, dance, dance, meet friends. Some walked like that until the morning.
As in general, all people tend to expect happiness from life, they were waiting for something special. And everyone hoped for a miracle ... But in fact, there was nothing more to hope for ...
How superstitious are we! They believed in omens all the time. And especially on New Year's Eve. Oh how many there were! The main one is “as you meet the New Year, so you will spend it”, but also pay off your debts (which was often not easy), try on new clothes, give gifts ... The main thing is that the wish made under the chiming clock comes true ...
But as time passed, and slowly began to change. And so, from the beginning of the prosperous socialism, and then from the Soviet Union falling apart before our eyes, one by one, the Jews went!
Over the past fifteen to twenty years in Israel, the United States and Germany for permanent place residence left thousands and thousands of Jews. It took years to get used to the new place, but the “Russians” (as these Jews, that is, you and I, are now called) turned out to be strong enough to preserve the habits of “that country”.
In Israel, before the New Year, according to the European calendar, they did not celebrate at all. But already in the late eighties, Israel saw long queues of people rushing to buy fruit, Soviet Champagne, caviar and products for the famous Olivier.
And now there is a whole industry working there before this holiday. Already at the end of November, artificial Christmas trees and toys begin to sell. They also bring real coniferous trees, but already before January 1st.
They put up Christmas trees, hang toys, set tables, and close to midnight turn on Russian TV channels. Still, "Russian" Israelis drink a "traditional" glass of champagne to the chiming clock, but now with the help of cable television. Everything is so simple, as if they never left. And have fun with might and main. Only the weather is not quite New Year's...
But if in Israel no one prevents the “Russians” from celebrating “their change of years”, then what can we say about other countries ...
In America, the Chimes are more difficult. When they strike in Moscow, they are still either at work or on the way from there. But you can celebrate slowly, because in a country built on the traditions of Protestant Christianity and tolerance for all religions, January 1st is a day off. "Old Traditions" is still in force here, the battle of the Chimes and Ogonyok can be watched in a recording on Russian cable or satellite television channels. And besides this, you can join the local traditions: for example, watch how exactly at midnight a crystal ball will break into smithereens in New York's Times Square.
Well, if someone has a little extra money, then you can celebrate in a restaurant. Reservations in numerous Russian restaurants and nightclubs begin long before the festive season, because then there will be no empty seats. Champagne by the river, food - whatever you want, and dancing all night, only in the morning to come home tired, but satisfied.
In Germany, in the homeland of Lutheran Protestantism, New Year's celebration also called "Sylvester" and celebrated noisily. An integral part of the New Year's celebration is fireworks and all sorts of bells and whistles that make as much noise as possible. They spend a holiday with family or friends, honoring all the same "old traditions", or, like many of the local population, just on the street. Closer to midnight, crowds, “armed” with bottles of champagne and glasses, gather in the city center, on the square near the city hall with a clock. With the first strike of the clock, a grandiose fireworks illuminates the sky, the roar of which merges with the noise of flying traffic jams and the hiss of foam. People often drink directly from their throats, and then, according to local tradition, they beat bottles on asphalt or cobblestones.
Obviously, it is not at all accidental that January 1st is called the same in Israel and Germany. On the other hand, in some Jewish communities it is a day of mourning. How so! And where is the solidarity with "all civilized mankind"?
It's no secret that according to legend, Yeshu (Jesus) was born on December 25th, and on January 1st (as usual with Jews - on the 8th day), he was circumcised and got his name.
This date is the beginning of the chronology of the accepted Gregorian calendar. But it turns out that the celebration of the New Year on this day began much earlier, when Yeshu, as they say, was not even in the project!
In 46 BC. e., the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), established a new calendar, calling it by his own name (Julian calendar) and January 1st as “ New Year's Day". The Julian calendar cycle consists of three 365-day years followed by a 366-day leap year. All months of the calendar are still called the names of Roman gods, except for August, which was renamed in his honor by the emperor Octavianus Augustus (63 BC - 14 AD), who considered himself a god.
January bears the name of the Roman god Janus (the same two-faced one), who was considered the god of doors and gates, and one face of this idol looked forward (as if into the future), and the other back (into the past). Caesar believed that this month would be a good "door" of the year.
And Caesar celebrated his 1st New Year by suppressing the Jewish uprising in Galilee. Witnesses said that blood flowed through the streets.
Meanwhile, in Rome, the pagans celebrated the New Year by arranging ritual drunken orgies in their temples, because they believed that in this way they would be able to rise to the level of the gods, who, in their opinion, created the World out of chaos.
With the spread of Christianity, the date of the pagan festival was kept in the Christian calendar. When, under Emperor Constantine, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity (313-315 AD) and became "Holy", the emperor's mother, Helena, insisted on preserving the tradition of celebrating the new year of Roman idolaters.
March 21, 325 CE e. under the leadership of the newly minted pope Sylvester I (304-335 AD), the same one whose name the day bears, the Nicene Council was convened. It was at this meeting that resolutions were adopted, thanks to which Christianity lost many features inherent in Judaism: instead of Saturday, Sunday was established as a day off, the worship of icons was allowed and legalized, etc.
A year before the creation of the Council of Nicaea, Pope Sylvester persuaded Emperor Constantine to ban Jews from living in Jerusalem on pain of death.
It is believed that Sylvester I died on December 31st. A few years later he was canonized among the saints. It was in honor of him that December 31st was established as "Saint Sylvester's Day", a day that in the future was destined to become a day of pogroms and bloodshed for European Jewry.
During the Medieval and Post-Medieval periods, the night of December 31st to January 1st was the most dangerous night of the year for the Jews of Europe. It simply did not fit in the minds of Christians that the very Jews who did not accept Jesus, did not recognize him as a prophet, live next to them, not to mention the fact that on this day their “idol” was circumcised. This day in the history of the Jewish people is full of all sorts of tragic events and manifestations: the burning of books and synagogues, public torture and burning at the stake, pogroms and simply murders.
There is an opinion that the tradition of arranging New Year's fireworks comes precisely from the glow of those fires ...
In the Middle Ages, there were two New Years in the calendars of most of Christian Europe. In addition to the well-known date associated with the birth and circumcision of Jesus, there was another day at the beginning of the year - March 25 - "Annunciation Day" - the day when, according to legend, the angel Gabriel informed Mary that she became pregnant from God and would give birth to a son .
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (also known as "Hugo Boncompagni", 1502-1585), abandoned the traditional Julian calendar. A new calendar was established, later called the Gregorian and differing from the Julian calendar in that the last year of the century is not a leap year (unless it is exactly divisible by 400, i.e. 1600, 2000, etc., but not divisible by 4000) and the New Year begins on January 1st, a date set by the early pagans in the month of Janus, January. Now this date has been officially legalized.
Here are a few more laws adopted by the same Gregory XIII. On New Year's Day 1577, he decreed that all the Jews of Rome, under pain death penalty, should carefully listen to the obligatory sermon on the need to convert to Christianity, which was given in Roman synagogues after prayer on Friday evening by Christian priests who came there specifically for this. And a year later, on New Year's Day 1578, he signed a law on a tax that Jews were required to pay to support the "House of Transfiguration" - a place for converting Jews to Christianity. Well, on New Year's Eve 1581, he ordered the pope's troops to confiscate all the sacred literature of the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were killed during this campaign. The glow of the bonfires of burnt books once again lit up the New Year's sky.
As you know, the New Year was brought to Russia by Tsar Peter I in 1700, along with the New Year tree, borrowed by Martin Luther from the pagans (see below).
After the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks declared the celebration of the New Year a bourgeois and religious relic. For many years, the New Year was banned along with Christmas trees, Santa Clauses and other attributes and was not celebrated. And only from January 1, 1937, largely thanks to the party leader P. Postyshev, the celebration of the New Year in the USSR was officially allowed by a special order of the party and government, but without religious rituals, as a purely secular holiday. But still, January 1st remained a working day, because the New Year was declared a children's holiday. The first number became a day off, only in 1947, after the monetary reform.
Apparently, it is no coincidence that the rehabilitation of the New Year turned out to be the most successful invention of Joseph Stalin. The New Year was really the only ideologically unloaded holiday in the USSR, a holiday for everyone. And that is exactly how he was imprinted in the memory of all post-war generations.
By deliberately making the holiday "unloaded", the Soviet party leaders easily ensured that it quickly lost all color (both religious and ideological - maybe even against someone's wishes) and turned into a day (more precisely, a night) of empty fun.
So what is being celebrated anyway? "St. Sylvester's Day" - the day of memory of the pope? The date of the “change of the year” and the memory of cardboard baskets with an enclosed note “Thank you Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood”? Or rivers of Jewish blood and the glow of burned synagogues? Or maybe it's just an immersion in the boundless mindlessness of the orgies of Roman idolaters? ..
Something lives in every person that makes our people stick to what they are used to, observe customs and traditions, even realizing that they themselves invented most of these “traditions”. The New Year is probably the best proof of this.
Former Soviet Jews, having found themselves in democratic countries around the world, continue to frantically cling to a holiday that not only has nothing to do with Jews, but drags along a long trail of tragedies throughout the history of the Jewish people. Replacing the spiritual values of their people with love for the values of European culture, on the fertile soil of democratic countries, where January 1st is a day off - or bashfully called "Sylvester", they plunge headlong into the emptiness of unbridled fun, into new hopes and expectation of New Year's miracles.
Only there will be no miracle, and it is precisely the expectation of this miracle that often leads to the fact that the holiday ends with disappointment ...
Since, in reality, nothing in this World is accidental, then probably the fact that it precedes that same non-Jewish New Year is not accidental at all. And what is Hanukkah, what is its essence? The word "Hanukkah" itself means "renewal", and the holiday is the Feast of Light, a memory of the Miracle of burning oil in the Menorah of the Jerusalem Temple.
The history of the Christmas tree
A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest ...
How often, walking along the New York streets, you see in the windows of shops and in the foyers of large buildings a Christmas tree sparkling with lights, and an electric chanukia standing next to it, often quite large. At first, the spectacle of many lights captivates the eye. But after a little thought, you understand: something is not right here, something is superfluous ...
Especially if you observe a similar picture in the house where a Jewish family lives, you still think that there is an extra Christmas tree. But this family cannot be taken away from her! For them, it is a "tribute to tradition", a reflection of childhood (especially for people from the former Soviet Union), which has no meaning other than celebrating the end of one calendar year and the beginning of the next.
So where did you come from in our life "green beauty"? What "tradition" do those who adorn you pay tribute to?
It seems to us that the New Year tree has always been, and it has always been like that, well, or ... almost like it is now. In fact, the tree acquired its current appearance relatively recently, and it does not at all look like what it was at the beginning. Just a little digging into history, you suddenly begin to realize with horror that this very Christmas tree is nothing more than a sacred tree of idolaters, adapted by Christians - it was adopted by Bolshevik propaganda for "soft" brainwashing.
Let's try to unravel this long chain of metamorphoses...
Pagans from ancient times worshiped trees as idols, made sacrifices in sacred groves. Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and Chinese praised evergreen trees and wreaths from their branches, Germanic and Celtic tribes preferred oak, Slavs preferred birch. It was considered a grave sin among the pagans to damage a tree in a sacred grove: in some Germanic tribes, peeling the bark from such trees was punished by skinning.
Among the main pagan holidays, these peoples had December 22 (the day of the winter solstice) and December 25 (the day of the earliest sunset) undoubtedly associated with the worship of the sun and the cult of trees, the only green at this time of the year.
As you know, the early Christians, in order to attract as many followers as possible, often adopted the rituals of the pagans, modifying and adapting them, giving them a different meaning in order to get more followers. With the spread of Christianity sacred groves and trees were cut down, but on the site of ancient cults, the worship of May and Christmas trees arose.
To this day, the custom of Catholics and Protestant Christians to hang wreaths of spruce or pine branches on the doors of their houses is widespread.
There are several versions about where and by whom the “Christmas tree” was started. One of them grants this honor personally to Martin Luther (the founder of the Lutheran Christian Church). The legend says that he was walking down the street one day on a starry winter night and was struck by the sight of a bright star, as if descending on top of a snow-covered Christmas tree.
IN modern form The Christmas tree appeared in Germany in the Middle Ages. The Christmas tree was put up in the houses on the eve of Christmas, decorated with apples, waffles were hung on it. By the way, candles on the Christmas tree began to be lit only from the middle of the 17th century. At first it was entertainment for the rich, but then, as usual, it spread everywhere, and soon crossed the borders of Germany. Decorations also changed. When Christian missionaries introduced the Japanese and Chinese to the Christmas holiday, they taught the Europeans how to make special paper toys. Then there were papier-mâché toys. Then an angel appeared crowning the Christmas tree. But the Germans still set the tone - it was they who invented transparent glass balls that glow in the dark thanks to phosphorescent paints.
So the pagan tree became an integral part of the new year.
The year 1699 was celebrated twice in Russia. First, on September 1, Peter I celebrated the onset of 5460 from the creation of the world (note that the serial number coincides with the Jewish one), and on December 20, he issued a decree on celebrating the New Year on January 1, 1700 from the birth of Yeshu (Jesus).
But, apparently, Russia is such a country in which everything is turned upside down as if through a looking glass. Everything seemed to be fine if not for the First World War. In 1914, a Christmas tree was arranged in Saratov for captured German soldiers who were in the local hospital, which was extremely disliked by some patriots, and a stormy protest campaign unfolded in the press. In 1916, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church banned the Christmas tree as "an enemy German invention."
Well, soon the October Revolution broke out. Having come to power, the Bolsheviks unleashed a struggle against religion, which was conducted absolutely and uncompromisingly. The goal of the communist rulers was to break any traditions associated with religion.
As you know, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the departure of the Jews of Central and of Eastern Europe from keeping the tradition. At first, this happened under the influence of lifestyle changes in Europe and the "freedoms" received by the Jewish population, when countries such as France, Germany, Holland, and others recognized the Jews as their full citizens. This freedom created the ground for the spread of the Askala (Enlightenment) movement, which turned the study of the Torah from a source of principles of life and traditions into academic discussions about the “philosophical ideas of the Great Teaching”, and called for “leaving the communal ghetto for Big world". A little later, a passion for the ideas of socialism was added to this.
It is no secret that there were quite a lot of Jews in the first Bolshevik government. All of them were so ashamed of their Jewish origin that they hid behind pseudonyms. But this did not prevent them from doing the transformation of this very "Big World".
They say that in 1920 the chief rabbi of Moscow, Yaakov Maze, turned to the fiery revolutionary, the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army, Lev Trotsky (real name Bronstein), with a request to use the army to protect Jews from the pogroms that began everywhere. Trotsky replied: “What are you talking about! Look around - the world revolution is coming! Soon there will be no borders and the whole world will speak the same language! And you, rebbe, it's time to take yourself to the museum! Why are you contacting me? I am not a Jew! I am an internationalist! To which Rav Maze replied: “This is the tragedy. Revolutions are made by the Trotskys, and the Bronsteins are paying for it.”
Under the Bolshevik Party, the so-called Jewish Section (Evsektsiya) was created, an organization consisting of young communist Jews whose task was to identify Jews who secretly studied Torah and observed Jewish law. Many of these young people only a few years ago studied in yeshivas and did their job perfectly, knowing the basic provisions of the law of their people. "Religious obscurantists" were branded with shame, expelled from work, later they began to put them in prisons, mental hospitals, etc.
Thus, for the Jews who fell under the wheel of Soviet power, the process of abandoning the centuries-old tradition of their people acquired simply gigantic proportions.
Having come to power, the Bolsheviks tacitly extended the decision of the Synod to ban the Christmas tree. But the proletarian struggle against prejudices could not eradicate the "desire for greenery" in the Russian people. Feeling his defeat in front of the Christmas tree that survived everything, Stalin chose to resolve it by using the "forest guest" for communist propaganda.
On December 28, 1935, Pravda published an article by P. P. Postyshev “Let's organize a good Christmas tree for the children for the New Year!”. Peter I, mind you, gave his subjects 11 days to prepare, Stalin - only 3. The recommendations of Pravda were carried out with lightning speed. The Christmas tree now began to resemble the Kremlin tower, and the star at the top is five-pointed, with a hammer and sickle. The tree very quickly penetrated everywhere - into houses, cinemas, clubs ... So the tree got a new name - now it has become a "New Year's tree", hiding its "religious origin".
The tree turned out to be tenacious in the harsh Soviet climate. In contrast to May Day and Revolution Day, New Year became the only non-political Soviet holiday subject to the least propaganda pressure. In any case, it seemed so. And the Christmas tree quickly and deeply rooted in everyday life.
To live in a situation where there is an unspoken quota for the admission of Jews to institutions and jobs, a Jew is the first in line for dismissal, etc., was, to put it mildly, not easy. Cut off from tradition, suppressed by the state authorities and the population, by general contempt for everything Jewish, the majority of Soviet Jews stopped observing Jewish law, shunning traditions and embarrassing themselves. What is already there to talk about raising children on the Jewish system of values and traditions. God forbid that children speak Yiddish! They should be like everyone else, even better than everyone else, so as not to point the finger! This is how several generations of “Jews by passport” grew up, cut off from the roots of their people.
But then the "Iron Curtain" fell, and Soviet Jews dispersed literally all over the world. In the free world, where there is no totalitarian "press" and "5th column" in the passport, people unite in groups according to the national-religious principle. This is where the question of the "Russian Jew" arises - who am I: am I Russian, or am I a Jew.
Yes, times have changed! The collapse of Soviet power made it possible for religion to emerge from the underground. Even members of the modern Russian government go to church and it's on TV. What can we say about the American president speaking about G-d at the memorial ceremony for the victims of September 11, 2001.
All this makes us think: what does the "Christmas tree" of pagans and Christians mean for us, which we remember in the version of Soviet propaganda? Is there a deep meaning in it, or is it just like that: I made a wish with the strike of a clock ... and after a few days there was no memory left of this? ..
You can often hear from representatives of the older generation of immigrants from the Soviet Union that they have a certain system of moral and spiritual values that is not associated with any religion. But as soon as you start to understand what is at stake, it suddenly becomes clear that all high moral principles were taught to them by their parents, and those, in turn, by their parents ... and so these roots go far into generations - Jewish generations. These roots connect us with what the Jewish people had before these very three or four generations, who grew up in an atmosphere of nihilism and atheism.
But what about us - those who left the Land of Soviets as children or young people? After all, our children are already growing up! The lifestyle of parents and their system of values are the basis for views on the life of their children, including forming an attitude towards religion.
If the Christmas tree is an integral part of parents' lives, what impact will this have on children? And it doesn't matter if they call it by its true name: Christmas Tree (Christmas tree), or the incomprehensible "New Year's"!
But Christmas (Christmas) is a religious holiday! Not just some kind of one of the main Christian holidays, celebrating the birth of Yeshu (Jesus) - the main Christian idol!
So what happens? The owner of the house considers himself a Jew, but did he put a Christian symbol in the house?
What about children? What will they learn with the Christmas tree in the middle of the house? Will this push them (God forbid) to a religion where everything is in order with the Christmas tree ...
In Judaism, every holiday has a deep inner meaning and educational value. We celebrate primarily in order to understand how the real events of our past can help us in today, again, real life and be the source of our spiritual growth. And, of course, you can’t say that these holidays are boring: having plunged into their fun of Jewish holidays - a masquerade in
It is hard to imagine, but once the New Year holiday did not exist. But everything has its beginning.
The history of this holiday has at least 25 centuries. This custom was first born in Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia). Here, as well as in the lower valley of the Nile, at the end of the 4th millennium BC, civilization was first born. Its famous centers Sumer, Babylon, Assyria arose here, famous for cultural heritage and the greatest inventions of mankind, which still do not cease to amaze and delight us. It was here, according to scientists, for the first time (in the third millennium) they began to celebrate the New Year. All agricultural work began at the end of March, after the water arrived in the Tigris and Euphrates. For 12 days, processions, carnivals, masquerades and this event was marked - the onset of the time of victories of the bright god Marduk over the forces of destruction and death. At this time, it was forbidden to work, punish, and administer courts. The cuneiform writing on one of the clay tablets said that these were days of unbridled freedom, when the entire world order was put upside down. The slave became the master.
The very word "carnival", by the way, translated from Babylonian means a ship-sea, and this is probably not accidental, because many rituals of the New Year's holiday were associated with the imaginary voyage of the god Marduk along the Euphrates. One day, the mysteries depicted the battle of Marduk against the monster of the goddess of chaos Tiamat (resembling a dragon, a snake, a lizard)
Scientists have proven that the Jews who were in Babylonian captivity (during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar) borrowed this story and included it in the Bible. In this myth, the origins of the Christian legend about George defeating the dragon (Does this symbolism remind you of anything? Well, of course, George the Victorious on the coat of arms of Moscow).
From the Jews, the tradition of New Year's celebration, borrowed by them, as you know, from the Babylonians, passed to the Greeks, and through them to the peoples of Western Europe.
How was the New Year celebrated in the old days?
Some peoples keep track of time according to the lunisolar calendar, and the beginning of the year falls somewhere in autumn, where in winter. But basically, the celebration of the New Year among the ancient peoples coincided with the beginning of the revival of nature and was timed, as a rule, to March. March was considered the first month by the ancient Romans, because at this time field work began. The year consisted of ten months, then the number of months was increased by two. In 46 BC. e. Roman emperor Julius Caesar moved the beginning of the year to January 1st. The Julian calendar named after him spread throughout Europe.
The Romans on this day made sacrifices to Janus and started major events with him, considering the first day of the year an auspicious day. The New Year was celebrated on January 1st.
In France, at first (until 755) they counted from December 25, then from March 1, in the 12th century - from the day of Easter, and from 1564, by decree of King Charles IX, from January 1. In Germany, the same thing happened in the middle of the 16th century, and in England from the 18th century. But how was it with us, in Rus'?
In Russia, from the time of the introduction of Christianity, fulfilling the customs of their ancestors, they also began the reckoning either from March or, more rarely, from the day of Holy Pascha. In 1492, Grand Duke John III finally approved the decision of the Moscow Cathedral to consider the first of September as the beginning of both the church and civil years, when it was ordered to pay tribute, duties, various dues, etc. And in order to give great solemnity to this day, the tsar himself appeared in the Kremlin the day before, where everyone, whether a commoner or a noble boyar, could approach him and seek directly from him truth and mercy (by the way, something similar happened in Byzantium during times of Constantine the Great).
The last time the New Year in Rus' was celebrated with royal splendor was on September 1, 1698. Dressing everyone with an apple, the king, calling everyone a brother, congratulated everyone on the New Year, on new happiness. Each zazravny cup of the king was accompanied by a shot from 25 guns.
On December 15, 1699, Peter I issued a decree in which he commanded to celebrate the New Year 1700 and the new millennium from the Nativity of man. From now on, it was forbidden to celebrate the coming of the new year from the day of the creation of the world, i.e. September 1. By royal decree, all residents of Moscow were ordered to celebrate the New Year: to light in new year's eve bonfires, fireworks, congratulate each other, decorate houses with coniferous trees. Preparations for the holiday had to be completed before January 1, 1700. Decorations were supposed to stand until January 7 of the current year, which now coincides with our New Year holidays.
The first rocket launched to mark the new rules and the date of the New Year was a rocket launched by the king himself, and after that the celebration began throughout the capital. Throughout the week, in the evening and at night, fireworks shone in the sky, the city was illuminated with festive illumination, people sang, danced and had fun, congratulated each other, giving New Year's gifts.
Peter I zealously made sure that the New Year holiday in our country was better and brighter than in Europe and did not differ in any way from it, including the chronology. The same decree canceled the year 7207 from the creation of the world, which was then going on in Rus', and proclaimed the year 1700 from the birth of Christ. This was another step towards Russia's rapprochement with Europe, as different calendars brought confusion in relations with European countries.
So, since January 1, the people's New Year's fun has received universal recognition and love. From now on, the New Year's holiday has ceased to be a church holiday, and has been fixed by the Russian calendar for centuries.
After the death of Peter I, they stopped putting up New Year trees. Only the owners of taverns decorated their houses with them, and these trees stood in taverns all year round- hence their name came from - "fir-trees-sticks".
New Year's festivities and the tradition of putting up Christmas trees were revived under Catherine II. And they began to decorate Christmas trees only in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is believed that the first Christmas tree in St. Petersburg was arranged by the Germans living there. The townspeople liked this custom so much that they began to install Christmas trees in their homes. From the capital of the empire, this tradition began to spread throughout the country.
In the old days, the Christmas tree was decorated with various delicacies: nuts in a bright wrapper, sweets and even vegetables. Wax candles burned on the branches, which then gave way to electric garlands. And shiny balls appeared relatively recently - about a hundred years ago. The top of the Christmas tree was crowned with the Star of Bethlehem, which was later replaced by a red five-pointed star.
In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks banned Christmas trees and New Year celebrations, considering it a “bourgeois whim” and an “old-fashioned custom.” In addition, in their opinion, "the New Year's holiday is too close in the calendar to the priest's Christmas and people should not be led into temptation." From that moment on, the New Year tree "went underground": only in some families they decided to arrange it and did it secretly.
In December 1935, party leader Pavel Postyshev "rehabilitated" the holiday, and in 1936 a Christmas tree for children and youth was arranged in the Hall of Columns.
The forest beauty has returned after many years of oblivion and has entered our lives forever as an evergreen miracle and a fairy tale. In 1954, the main Christmas tree of the country, the Kremlin, was lit for the first time, which sparkles and sparkles every New Year.
New Year is a holiday celebrated in all countries of the world. In ancient times, each nation used its own dating, timed to coincide with some important event in history or mythology. The custom to celebrate the new year already existed in the third millennium BC. The countdown of new years from January 1 was officially established in 46 BC. Julius Caesar. This date was dedicated to the deity of all beginnings, entrances and exits - Janus.
Do you know that the history of the celebration of the new year in our country has more than three hundred years? Let's turn to history and compare how the new year is celebrated in Russia today with how it was celebrated several hundred years ago.
The holiday loved by all the children of the world was brought to Russia from Europe by Peter the Great. In Rus', the celebration of the New Year has been timed to coincide with the first autumn day from time immemorial. Since 1700, in Moscow, it began to be celebrated on January 1, gradually the tradition spread throughout the country. The festivities, as a rule, began on the night of December 26
The New Year in Russia has always been celebrated stormily, noisily and cheerfully. The central streets of cities and houses were decorated with branches of juniper, pine and spruce. Festive services were held in prayer houses and temples of the country. The traditional New Year's set - Santa Claus, Olivier and champagne, appeared a little later. But fireworks and festive firecrackers - the favorite amusements of Peter the Great, became a common occurrence for Muscovites already at the beginning of the 18th century. Magnificent spectacles with a huge number of multi-colored stars exploding in the sky were held on the main and most large areas, a special role in the design of these squares was assigned to special decorations in the form of pavilions, statues, pools and obelisks. Multiple cannon volleys signaled the arrival of the new year.
The New Year in Russia during the time of Peter the Great became more secular than. As we know, Peter loved to have fun on a grand scale, which horrified and despaired many clergymen of those times. It was the young one who looked European life The emperor initiated the holding of entertainment events in Rus' with dancing and a lot of alcohol. New Year's balls, masquerades and assemblies have become a traditional pastime. On them, for the first time, freedom was given to women in dress and demeanor. Now a noble lady could appear in public in a completely “shameful dress” and not be ashamed of it. Each new year in Russia under Peter the Great took on a special meaning, and its celebration was always dedicated to military victories or signings peace treaties.
For two centuries, the celebration of the new year has remained unchanged. The 1917 revolution brought people a lot of suffering and grief, it was the period when no one wanted fun. Only in 1935, having recovered from the shocks, the people of our country again started talking about the new year as a holiday, and not about the day of the calendar change. The New Year in Soviet-era Russia was not complete without a spruce tree decorated with glass toys and tinsel and without a red star towering above its crown, symbolizing the Kremlin. Since the year the Western came to us, however, all the Orthodox continued to follow the traditions of their predecessors. Therefore, today we celebrate the new year twice: according to the "old" and "new" style.
Everyone knows how they celebrate the New Year in Russia today. In no city can a holiday be complete without the establishment of a central Christmas tree for the joy of the children and the construction of a clock strike at midnight and congratulations from the president. Maybe, modern man the celebration of the new year in the era of Peter will seem boring, but there was also a special charm in that time!
Each new year, the history of the holiday, dedicated to the next annual cycle, attracts everyone's attention. The fact is that this is perhaps the only holiday in the world that is celebrated by all the inhabitants of the earth, regardless of race, nationality or religious beliefs. At the same time, the New Year in Russia is celebrated by many people twice:
- the first time - January 1;
- the second time is January 13th.
The second date refers to the so-called old New Year, which at one time was the only one and was celebrated on January 1 according to the Julian calendar.
The history of the emergence of the New Year holiday in each country is different, while not everywhere it took root right away. The New Year in Russia changed the dates of the celebration several times and also did not take root right away, which is why the ancient customs of celebrating the date of the beginning of the annual cycle remained for a long time among the people.
So, for example, historians still do not know how this holiday was celebrated in Rus' in the pagan period of its history. The fact is that no evidence has been preserved that unambiguously indicates the time of the beginning of the new year in those days. Most scientists agree that the ancient Slavs, like most ancient peoples, considered the month of March to be the beginning of the new year, since it is during this period that the next revival of nature begins after hibernation.
Where did the New Year come from, the history of the emergence of this holiday and other issues related to this topic can be clarified by learning that it turns out that the Slavs celebrated not a single date, but immediately the first three months, which were called span and included avsen, ovsen or tusen.
Moreover, if you still specify the date, then in Rus' this holiday was celebrated, presumably, on the day of the spring equinox on March 22. At the same time, Maslenitsa and the New Year were celebrated on the same day.
With the adoption of Christianity in Rus', the calculation began to be carried out from the creation of the world, therefore, from 988, according to the new Julian calendar, the holiday began to be celebrated starting from March 1. However, the New Year did not come to us forever in this form, the history of the holiday changed once again in 1348, when church hierarchs, guided by the decisions of the Council of Nicaea, moved this holiday to September 1.
Such innovations caused an ambiguous reaction among the people, as they went against the long-standing traditions in Rus' of celebrating the beginning of a new annual cycle. But the September date was nevertheless approved and existed in the church tradition even when the secular authorities in the person of Peter the Great again changed the date for celebrating the new year.
Reforms of Peter the Great
The history of the New Year holiday, as we know it, is associated with the name of Peter I. The fact is that the Russian emperor, implementing his reforms, in 1699 put an end to the observance of customs Ancient Rus' and ordered that January 1, which is familiar to us, be considered the date of the beginning of the new year.
Since the church in Russia lived according to the Julian calendar, the emperor could not completely transfer the country to the calendar system by which all Christian nations lived - the Gregorian. However, he forced the reckoning not from the creation of the world, but from the Nativity of Christ. At the same time, the chronology of the new model for a long time went in parallel with the old order of counting years.
Peter, known for his tough temper, simply forbade celebrating the old date - September 1. Those who disobeyed the decree were severely punished. At the same time, Peter carefully monitored that the holiday would be celebrated in accordance with European traditions, and for this he developed a whole regulation.
It was from 1699 that the New Year acquired its familiar image associated with a Christmas tree, fireworks, and a festive table.
At the same time, it became fashionable to give each other gifts and congratulate each other on this day. At the same time, the church did not participate in the festivities, and the clergy celebrated church holidays and Christmas.
The new authorities, who became the head of the country in 1917, also updated the New Year, the history of which was supplemented Soviet period. The fact is that after the October Revolution, the Soviet government decided to reform the current calendar, as a result of which Russia switched to the Western European style, developed on the basis of the Gregorian calendar. It was on it that most of the countries of Europe lived at that time.
As a result, the first day after January 31st was set to February 14th. As a result, the date of celebration of many church holidays, such as Christmas and New Year, had to be shifted. In addition, such a purely Russian phenomenon as the old New Year arose.
In 1929, the new authorities canceled the celebration of Christmas, New Year and the tradition of setting up a Christmas tree. However, already in 1935, the tradition of installing spruce for the new year was revived, when a prominent Bolshevik figure P.P. Postyshev called for organizing the New Year for children, including setting up a Christmas tree for them. This initiative marked the beginning of the celebration of the New Year in the Soviet style with champagne, Russian salad and sprats.
At the same time, until 1949, January 1 was a working day, and Soviet citizens could celebrate the holiday only after they had fully worked out the working day.
Modern traditions of celebration
Modern traditions of celebrating the New Year have not changed much since Soviet times. It is also celebrated on the night of January 31st to January 1st, while educational and cultural institutions can organize their own New Year's parties for the child, for example, in a kindergarten or school.
It is worth noting the tradition of celebrating the old New Year, which was born back in the time of Peter the Great, when the holiday was celebrated in September, secretly. The Soviet government, having postponed the first day of the new year for 14 days, consolidated this tradition. As a result, the Russians began to celebrate the holiday twice - according to the new and according to the old calendar.
In addition, the celebration of the onset of a new annual cycle according to the Chinese, Buddhist and other calendars has recently become popular. Most often, this has nothing to do with adherence to a particular philosophy or religion - many people simply try in this way to prolong the atmosphere of the holiday before the new working year.
As for the Russian Orthodox Church, it lives according to the Julian calendar. At the same time, church hierarchs declare that there is no question of the transition of the Church to the Gregorian calendar, so the Orthodox New Year is celebrated on September 14 according to the secular calendar or September 1 according to the church. In honor of this event, prayer services "for the New Year" are served in Russian churches.
How and when did the New Year appear? The question is very interesting, especially considering that we have said more than once that the New Year is the most ancient holiday, of all celebrated by man.
The appearance of the New Year is associated with the need for a person to count and measure time. Man was a part of nature and he was looking for a temporary measure in nature - the annual revolution of the Earth around the Sun fit perfectly. The Earth circled the Sun, a new agricultural season began, a new sowing and harvesting. What else did people care about back then? Yes, basically nothing.
It remains to choose the date of the beginning of the New Year. The time of the celebration of the New Year should be significant.
The first evidence of the celebration of the New Year dates back to three thousand years BC. So the answer to the question, when did the new year appear?
The first to celebrate it were in Mesopotamia, and all the celebrations were timed to coincide with the flood of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The flood of the rivers took place around the beginning of March, and as a result, the date of the first celebration of the New Year falls on March.
Today in Russia New Year's weekend lasts 10 days. In Mesopotamia, festivities on the occasion of the New Year lasted for 12 whole days! During the celebration, it was strictly forbidden to work (in principle, no one tried), to administer courts and in any way punish the guilty. The message of the world was heard: festive processions, festivities and a kind of carnivals were organized. The Mesopotamians celebrated the victory of their light deity Marduk over the forces of darkness, death and destruction.
In Babylon, an ancient Mesopotamian city, during the feast the king would leave the city, and the people could do whatever they wanted during his absence. Almost the same happens with children who are left without parental supervision. Well, after the return of the ruler, everything returned to normal - a new working year began, a new life
This is how you can say the New Year was born.
Mesopotamia is not the only civilization to mark the beginning of the next year.
During the excavations of the ancient Egyptian pyramids, an unusual vessel was found, on which was the inscription "The beginning of the new year." This is direct evidence that the New Year was also celebrated in Egypt.
As in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt New Year's Eve was in full swing main river- Nile, because it is the Nile that the Egyptians owe the opportunity to sow bread in the desert. This happened around the end of September. Lush festivities, feasts, ritual boat rides along the flooded river, and so on, were also arranged here. Perhaps the beginning of the modern tradition of decorating the Christmas tree came from those times - the Egyptians decorated palm trees.
Most often, the celebration of the New Year in many countries of antiquity took place in the spring, and was timed to coincide with the beginning of a new annual cycle, which began with the renewal of nature.
However, some peoples combined the beginning of the New Year with the end of the field work and the completion of the harvest. Logically. You've done your work, now you can relax and have fun.
This is how the ancient Celts and Gauls, who lived on the territory of modern France and England, celebrated the New Year. The holiday of the beginning of the new year had its own name - Samhain (Samhain), now Halloween. The holiday had a strong mystical connotation. It was believed that on this day the line between this and the other world becomes very thin and ghosts can come to us. To scare them away, the Celts used mistletoe branches - another "ancestor" of the modern Christmas tree.
Like many other nations, the Ancient Romans celebrated the beginning of the New Year in March. Perhaps it was they who introduced the tradition of giving gifts to each other. High-ranking officials were especially active in presenting gifts on New Year's Eve. Then this tradition of giving became obligatory.
Only in 45 BC, Julius Caesar, with the help of priests, astrologers and astrologers, introduced a new calendar, named after him, the Julian. And it was he who decided to celebrate the New Year on January 1.
