New Year's legends from different countries. Fairy tale "Christmas legend"

New Year and Christmas - the holidays are not exactly fantastic, but certainly magical. We are used to believing that miracles happen these days and wishes come true. No fiction - just the way it should be. This is the only night of the year when even skeptics and atheists believe in miracles. And further big question who gave more magic to whom: Christmas to the New Year or vice versa.

So when is the new year?

It turns out that the New Year is the most ancient holiday peace. During excavations at the ancient Egyptian pyramids, a vessel was found, made in the III millennium BC, with the inscription: "The beginning of a new year." Even before the Egyptians, it began to be celebrated in Mesopotamia. Idea to mark the beginning calendar year, as well as the very idea of ​​the "annual circle", it was not by chance that it arose in agricultural cultures: it is necessary to sow and harvest crops strictly in certain days of the year. The beginning of agricultural work was also considered the beginning of a new cycle.

And already in ancient times, this holiday acquired a mystical meaning. In Mesopotamia, for example, the celebration of the New Year lasted twelve days in March and was dedicated to the victory of the god Marduk over the forces of the underworld. According to the cuneiform tablets, it was the Sumerians who invented new year holidays. It was impossible to work on these sacred days, people enjoyed unrestrained freedom, feasts and entertainment.

In Egypt, where the agricultural year began in summer, with the flood of the Nile and the rising of the star Sirius, these days a boat was sent down the river with a statue of the sun god Amon-Ra, who was considered the winner of the forces of darkness from the underworld. It was as if God descended from heaven to turn the earthly Nile into a heavenly Nile for a few days.

In ancient Babylon, the heir to the Sumerian civilization, the inhabitants seemed to start life anew every year: the king and his retinue left the city for a short time, and then solemnly returned to the cries of welcome from the people who had celebrated.

When we say "March" or "September" we mean the season corresponding to them in our calendar. The names of these months, as well as the tradition of celebrating the New Year in the middle of winter (unusual for ancient peoples - after all, nothing related to agriculture happens at this time), appeared in Ancient Rome through the efforts of Julius Caesar in 46 BC. In the calendar, which was called the Julian, each month was dedicated to one of the gods.

January, the first month of the year, was the property of the mysterious Janus - the patron of entrances and exits, past and future, predictions, magic and secret knowledge. He was depicted with two faces - old and young. It is with Janus that the symbolism of the New Year is associated as a timelessness between the past and the future, like the Samhain “night of transition”.

The characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas weren't so wrong in "stealing" Christmas. Halloween for the Celts was also a new year.

The Romans did the magic of the coming year, wishing each other well. It was believed that on this night, by the will of Janus, words acquire magic power. The custom of giving new Year gifts the Romans also came up with - however, they were accepted only by patricians from subordinates, and emperors - from patricians. Caligula, for example, scrupulously wrote down who presented what to him in order to repay what he deserved.

The Roman tradition of celebrating the New Year in winter took root in Europe so much that Pope Gregory XIII, who reformed the calendar, did not cancel it. But in Russia, at the end of the 17th century, the onset of the “New Year” was celebrated according to the Byzantine calendar, on September 1. The Winter New Year was introduced by Peter I along with other European customs. Previously, the year in Rus' was counted either from March 1, or generally from Easter, which has a new date every year.

The ancient Greeks celebrated the new year on the day of the summer equinox and dedicated it to the god of wine and fun, Dionysus (that's why we drink in new year's eve champagne!), the Celts - on the night of Samhain (November 1), modern Orthodox Jews celebrate the floating date of Rosh Hashanah (September-October). Chinese New Year starts in late January or early February lunar calendar, Zoroastrian - per day spring equinox(21 March). And the new year according to the Muslim calendar can come in autumn or early winter. In general, January 1 is really the most illogical date for this holiday, the strength of which is only in a long tradition.

Due to the introduction in 1919 of the Gregorian calendar, which differs from the Julian by fourteen days, we have an outlandish holiday that is not found in any country in the world - the Old New Year (January 14). And between them, Christmas was hidden - a day (more precisely, night), whose customs are so similar to New Year's, that it is difficult to understand who borrowed what from whom.

Christmas or Yule?

In the first centuries of Christianity, no one knew the date of the birth of Christ, because in Jewish culture it is generally not customary to celebrate birthdays. The main holiday of the early Christians was Epiphany (January 6), uniting the meaning of Christmas and Epiphany. The statement that Jesus was born on December 25 of the Julian calendar is first found in 221 AD, in the annals of the Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus. Later, this date appears in the Roman almanac of the middle of the 6th century - from the Romans, with their habit of the winter New Year, this was to be expected.

Many historians argue that Christ could not have been born in winter. Rather, it happened in the summer or early autumn. The gospel says that on the night of his birth, the shepherds were in the pasture, and December in Judea is cold and rainy - not best time for grazing. But in the Talmud, the holy book of the Jews, there is a mention that the flocks intended for the temple sacrifices grazed in the winter. In any case, it was not "White Christmas" - snow rarely falls in those parts.

The custom of gifts at Christmas goes back to the legend of the Magi - wise men from distant lands who presented gifts to the baby Jesus. As for other customs, they are mostly borrowed from the now almost forgotten pagan holiday. If Halloween, the former Samhain, is loved and noisily celebrated in the world, then Yule (Yule), the day winter solstice, does not enjoy such honor precisely because its traditions passed to Christmas.

Adoration of the Magi. Byzantine mosaic of the 7th century.

Yule was celebrated by the ancient Germans on the very long night year, rejoicing that the Wheel of the Year has made a new turn and now the day will gradually increase. The Scandinavians dedicated this holiday to Odin. One of the Norwegian sagas describes a magnificent Yule feast, the first toast on which was certainly raised to the king - the governor of Odin on Earth. Another god honored on this holiday is Freyr, "responsible" for fertility. His sacred animal was a wild boar, which was sacrificed on Yule, and then oaths were pronounced over his head, which were considered unbreakable.

Twelve nights after Yule were dedicated to the spirits of ancestors. They were also considered nights when the Wild Hunt rages, and "nights of mothers" - wise women, in some cults representing the Triune Goddess. It was to the ancestors that the Yule tree was dedicated, which was decorated with delicacies - a sacrifice for the spirits. By the way, in ancient times it had to be alive - the celebrants went to the forest and decorated a Christmas tree or other tree right there. A coniferous tree that has turned into a Christmas and Christmas tree, symbolized eternal life and the rebirth of nature after winter. The branches of holly, ivy and mistletoe served the same purpose, with which houses were decorated - in the West they are still considered symbols of Christmas.

Freyr on his riding boar, which does not even know that it will become a Christmas ham.

There is also a tradition from mythology that if on Christmas a single guy and a girl are together under the mistletoe, they should kiss. Among the Scandinavians, mistletoe was considered a sacred plant by Freya, the goddess of love. It was from the mistletoe that the arrow was made that wounded the beautiful god Baldr: when his mother Frigga took an oath from all animals and plants that they would not harm her son, for some reason she missed the mistletoe. After the wound of Baldur was healed, the mistletoe was given over to the goddess of love, so that from now on it would serve life, not death. Thus, kissing under the mistletoe is a ritual, a way to honor the ancient goddess and love itself.

Another festive ritual is the burning of the "Yule log", which must be found within twelve hours before midnight on the land of the owner of the house, in last resort- receive as a gift. It is best if it is made of ash - this tree among the Scandinavians symbolized world tree Yggdrasil. The log was sprinkled with flour, sprinkled with cider (a traditional Yule drink) and placed in a fireplace, where it was supposed to burn all night, and then smolder for twelve days and nights of the "Yule holiday". In many countries, this custom has been replaced by the preparation of a delicacy "Christmas log" - a roll, which is given the appearance of a log and served at the festive table.

Two Yule logs, edible and inedible.

Yule night was celebrated cheerfully, with feasts and songs, and children sang, walking from house to house and collecting gifts - apples and sweets. This custom has evolved into the singing of carols or Christmas carols. Is that the mummers began to carry with them " star of bethlehem". The same star began to decorate the top of the Christmas tree. When in the USSR after for long years oblivion of the Christmas tree as a "bourgeois" tradition, they decided to return it anyway, they left the star on top, only made it red and five-pointed.

The more the population of the German countries became Christianized, the less often Yule was mentioned as a separate holiday. The word Yule in modern Scotland simply means "Christmas". And Shakespeare's comedy "Twelfth Night" got its name because it was written for a holiday in honor of the final, twelfth night of Yule, which at the time of the playwright became "the twelfth night after Christmas."

The dark time of the year, which accounts for Yule, was an expanse for evil spirits. Traditions are connected with this to make a sacrifice to forces symbolizing cold, darkness and death. Not out of love for them, but in an attempt to appease them so that they pass by. Folklorists find echoes of the Slavic cult of Winter in the fairy tale "Morozko". Perhaps it describes the rite of human sacrifice to the terrible Frost. Girls became victims, and this terrible rite was considered a symbolic marriage of god and man. In the fairy tale and the film by Alexander Row based on it, the sacred marriage turned into the adoption of a meek girl by Frost, who, with her modesty, was able to appease him and receive a reward for this.

Granddaughter Snegurochka (I wonder who her parents are?) appeared to Father Frost already in the Soviet Union, when in the 1930s a new New Year's mythology was created to replace the "obscurantist" Christmas one.

Now the fairy tale no longer seems childish, right?

New Year traditions

Majority new year traditions exists in order to set in motion the magic of renewal: everything bad must remain in the old year, and everything good must multiply in the new. This is achieved by various symbolic actions.

• In Italy, on New Year's Eve, it is customary to clean the house of old junk, often simply throwing it out of the windows. So, if you celebrate the holiday somewhere in Milan or Naples, try not to walk under the windows - out of harm's way.
• If you are taken to sunny Cuba, be no less careful. Cubans at New Year's midnight fill all the vessels in the house with water and pour it out of the windows to "wash the road" for the new year.
• And in Burma, they pour water on each other at a meeting - this is a ritual wish for happiness. Fortunately, the tropics are hot all year round.
• In Japan, they celebrate noisily, but safely: bells in temples on New Year's Eve ring one hundred and eight times, symbolizing the deliverance from all possible vices.

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The best New Year is the one that we celebrate exactly the way we want, and with the people we choose. "World of Fantasy" hopes that your New Year and Christmas holidays will be like this!

Of course, there are many more stories about such an important attribute of Christmas and New Year as a decorated beautiful spruce. I have chosen three of them and ask you to add details and share the legends that you know. It is no secret that ancient people treated trees as living beings endowed with good, mystical, sometimes sinister or other spiritual powers. Often legends about the New Year tree are associated with legends about the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For the evergreen needles, the Christmas tree was called the "world tree", symbolizing peace and rebirth. In the most ancient times, instead of toys, it was decorated with apples - symbols of fertility and eggs - a symbol of developing life. CHRISTIAN LEGEND The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree bright toys associated with the night when Jesus was born. The Magi presented gifts to the baby, and Joseph, in order to please Jesus, also cut down and brought to his cradle forever green Tree. The stars rolled down from the sky and shone on the branches, and Jesus laughed and clapped his hands. Since then, it has been customary to decorate the Christmas tree with shiny toys and stars. A touching legend Once a very kind, but poor woman decided to make her children happy at Christmas and decorate the house with a festive spruce. She managed to get a small tree, but there were not enough coins to decorate it. At night, when everyone was sleeping, a spider crept onto the Christmas tree and tried to hang its web on the branches. Christ watched over his efforts and over the poor woman. He blessed the humble festive tree, and the web turned into sparkling silver threads. Since then, it has been customary to decorate the Christmas tree with iridescent tinsel. PAGAN LEGEND It is known that the Huns (or, as they were called in the Chinese chronicles, the Xiongnu people) were the first to give gifts for the New Year and put fir trees in their houses - for the god Yerlu, to help him descend from heaven to earth. The tree was decorated with hunting trophies and silver jewelry to appease the divine guest. If something was missing from the tree, the Huns believed that this was a blessing to Yerlu. Especially welcome was the arrival of Yerlu in the houses where there were young men and women who were to become adults in the coming year. On the morning of the first day of the New Year, parents and shamans went around such dwellings and gave the boys a bow or sword, and the girls a spindle. For warriors and rulers, shamans also arranged " New Year's gatherings» near the common Christmas tree. True, they decorated it in a serious way: with the skulls of enemies and pieces of meat, and around they sprinkled the blood of sacrificial animals and feasted. Shamans, meanwhile, predicted what the coming year would be like for the Xiongnu people.

An incredible project for Anna Netyagina and her offspring: a calendar with the top executives of the A.Family Group holding from an unusual perspective (and who, no matter how…

Every city has its own legend. In some good, in some terrible and terrible. This story happened in a town called Calavernus.

New Year is the most anticipated holiday for both children and adults. Everyone hopes for some miracles, they expect gifts, congratulations! Year after year, people prepare for New Year holidays: decorate Christmas trees, decorate the city, sing songs on the streets, sculpt snow castles and just having fun. But this does not prevent them from fearing the curse that has been placed on the city by an old sorceress who has lost her son. People tried to run away from the city to live in other places, but some magical powers returned them to their former place in their own house, and they began to live worse than before.

Every one hundred and seventeen years something terrible happens in the city. The inhabitants of the city of Calavernus wait for this day year after year with wild horror. When a hundred years pass after the “terrible day”, a child must be born on the first day of the hundred and first year. Boy. Hope and support for every mother. But this child becomes a burden in this family. He is capricious, indulges, and most importantly, grows by leaps and bounds. By the time he is one year old, the baby already looks like a five-year-old boy. When he is two - a ten-year-old boy. Three is quite an adult, and completely clumsy. Parents find it hard to deal with.

But that's not the whole problem. On New Year's Eve (exactly seventeen years after birth), our "baby" turns into a monster that destroys everything in its path. This is what the whole city is preparing most of all: it strengthens houses, stores food for the period of the destruction of the city.

Fortunately, there is a thing that can stop and break the curse, but this secret went with the sorceress to the grave.

The year has come when the most terrible day in the life of the inhabitants of the city of Calavernus is to take place. People, helping each other, strengthen houses, store food and warm clothes, taking them to the dugouts, but with this commotion they do not forget that the New Year is on the nose, and the city should be beautiful anyway.

And then came the day of judgment. People in the houses celebrate the holiday, give each other gifts. The chimes are heard. And ... here it is! The roar of a little monster! Residents scatter to secluded places to hide from the clutches of an evil monster. The beast runs, knocks down everything in its path, smashes, beats, demolishes! But... something happened to the monster. He falls to his knees and bows his head to the ground. People leaned out of windows in bewilderment, ran out of houses to see what happened? Nothing! I can not see anything! Just fog and a beast sitting on its knees.

Voices of people began to be heard discussing an incomprehensible phenomenon. And suddenly a girl of indescribable beauty emerges from the fog: long Brown hair, falling on the shoulders, a white silk dress with a blue ribbon at the waist. And barefoot, completely barefoot. The girl carried an edelweiss flower in her hand. She approached the monster, sat down on the snow and handed it to the beast with the words: “Be the most wonderful person on the ground! Bring people happiness and a smile! After all, you are kind! After all, you are the best! Take a flower, put it to your heart and remember that not only flowers, but also people bring happiness and warmth.” The beast took the flower, put it to his heart, as the girl said, and ... gradually the monster began to turn into the most beautiful young man, which only the inhabitants of the city of Calavernus could see.

People were happy to see beautiful girl who could break the curse evil witch. And the good fellow, who had recently turned from a beast into a man, got to his feet, raised the girl from the snow, approached his parents, apologized for causing them so much trouble, said goodbye to them and took his savior in an unknown direction, no one found out where they disappeared, and where the savior girl came from. For residents, this year has become the most wonderful and happy NEW YEAR!

And the young lived happily ever after!

New Year's Eve Charm...

A lot of legends and legends have come down to us about the New Year tree. It is this evergreen tree that has had a special meaning for man since ancient times. Previously, people believed that trees had a soul, they worshiped them, decorated them.

It is believed that the custom of decorating Christmas trees for the New Year came to us from Germany. One of them says that once the German leader was returning home from a campaign just on Christmas Eve. His road ran through winter forest. Everything around was fabulously beautiful: in the sky shone bright stars, a clear moon floated between the clouds, illuminating the snow, which smoothly fell on trees and bushes, covering them with sparkling snowflakes. The warrior was fascinated by this fabulous picture. He chose the most beautiful and fluffy tree and brought it home. He decorated this Christmas tree with candles that burned and shimmered like bright stars in the sky.

But have you ever thought about why most often we decorate the Christmas tree with silver tinsel? It turns out that there is a legend about this. Once upon a time, a poor woman who had many children decided to put up a Christmas tree in the house before the holiday. But she was so poor that she had nothing to hang on a tree as a decoration. At night, a spider climbed onto the Christmas tree and hung its web on green needles. Christ saw this and blessed this spruce, making the ordinary web sparkle like real silver threads.

More than two thousand years have passed since then. But people still decorate Christmas trees with glass and plastic toys, garlands, shiny tinsel. Previously, nuts, eggs, apples and all sorts of sweets were hung on them. A nut is a symbol of the incomprehensibility of God's providence, an apple means a symbol of fertility, and eggs symbolize a new developing life.

Now you can buy Christmas trees at special bazaars, in shops where a wide selection of decorations for them is also presented. There is also a wholesale sale of various New Year's paraphernalia, which is updated every year. IN Lately decorative items are becoming more and more popular. christmas trees, which are very reminiscent of natural, not inferior to them in beauty. But by purchasing such a spruce, you stand for the conservation of nature. The advantage of such artificial christmas tree Plus, it can last for many years.

Children, like many centuries ago, rush to New Year's beauty to find the gifts that Santa Claus brought them. Yes, and we are all waiting for a miracle on New Year's Eve, make wishes and firmly believe that the wish will come true.