Old New Year: where the holiday came from and whether it is celebrated in Ukraine this year

13.01.2025/00/20 XNUMX:XNUMX    719

 

Some of the citizens started to celebrate the Old New Year against the background of the calendar problem in Ukraine - the transition to the so-called "new" style.

When did the tradition of celebrating the Old New Year appear

According to the expert, the emergence of such a holiday as the Old New Year is a matter of the Julian and Gregorian church calendars, as well as folk traditions.

"The holiday of the Old New Year appeared against the background of the calendar problem - the transition to a new style (to the Gregorian church calendar) at the beginning of the 20th century," Kovalenko clarified.

He recalled that it was then (in 1918) that the Soviet authorities approved the decision to switch to the Gregorian calendar (or to the "new" style).

Meanwhile, “parallel” processes were taking place in the world.

The problem with the Julian calendar, which later received the name "old", is that every 128 years it accumulates a discrepancy of one day between the astronomical (solar) and calendar (calculated by the formula) equinoxes.

This discrepancy between the actual astronomical events and the calendar dates led to the fact that the celebration of all non-transitional feasts (those that have a fixed date and are celebrated on the same day every year) of the church year began to gradually move forward and reached 13 days.

In view of this, the Catholic Church and a number of European countries switched to the "updated" Gregorian calendar (it was introduced on October 4, 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII).




"The Orthodox Churches also understood that even from an astronomical point of view, the old style, or the Julian calendar, is imperfect," the archpriest of the OCU emphasized and added that in the 20s of the XNUMXth century, most of the Orthodox Churches of the world switched to the new Julian calendar (which from the secular ( from an external) point of view, it is actually similar to the Gregorian one and differs only in Easter).

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When the Soviet authorities approved Ukraine's transition to the Gregorian calendar, the Church first discussed the issue and "at first seemed to be transitioning," but later the fears of citizens and the unwillingness to have "anything in common with the Soviet authorities" led to the fact that people began to live with two calendars.

"And here it is important that at the beginning of the 20th century the Church actually lived in the old style, and not just called the old style new dates... But in that period, if we take Ukraine, for example, not all church people accepted these innovations of the Soviet government. At most, they were still connected with the persecution of the Church, of religion, the destruction of churches and the like," explained Kovalenko.

Given this situation, church people "really wanted to stay on the Julian calendar and live by that calendar."

"As I understand it, people whose cycle of holidays remained in such a church Julian calendar... that's where this Old New Year was," remarked the rector of the Orthodox university.

That is, it was then that Ukrainians began to celebrate the Old New Year - according to the old calendar (on the night of January 13-14).

Who and when celebrated the Old New Year in Ukraine

Kovalenko reminded that, in addition to celebrating the New Year, Ukrainians also kept other traditions.

Among them is celebrating the so-called Generous Evening a week after Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve) and Christmas Carols, which, according to the church calendar, falls on the day of St. Melania.

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That is, the Generous Evening or the holiday of Malanka was celebrated on the eve of the New Year (or Old New Year).

Meanwhile, the next day in the church calendar is the feast of Basil the Great (or, as the people say, the feast of Basil).

"The tradition of celebrating... Basil or Malanka, or giving generously on this day... It existed and remained in this circle of ritual, church and folk holidays," the expert noted.

He added that the appearance of the Old New Year "is caused by the fact that the parents of those who lived at the beginning of the 20th century, and all the people during whom the transition to a new style took place, in fact lived according to both the church calendar (Julian) and the ritual calendar ( people's)".

"For example, my grandparents celebrated the Old New Year... I remember that it was the same holiday for them... No less than the New Year. In other words, my parents, relatively speaking, celebrated the New Year in a new style," Kovalenko shared.

He added that his parents, as well as his family and children, "actually did not have an Old New Year."

"There was some mention of him. Sometimes there were other greetings, somewhere in the 90s. But my children did not even know about the existence of any Old New Year... Therefore, I think that the connection with those generations who lived in Ukraine at the end of the XNUMXth century, their children (my grandparents) who lived at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, gave birth to this Old New Year," the archpriest said.

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Based on the fact that subsequent generations of Ukrainians (starting from around the 80s) did not have such a "direct connection" with the Old New Year, this holiday gradually disappeared.

That is, later on, a complete transition to a new style took place among people.

"And now the Church has switched to the New Julian calendar," noted the rector of the Open Orthodox University.

Do they celebrate the Old New Year in Ukraine now?

According to Kovalenko, now in Ukraine there may be cases of celebrating the Old New Year. At the same time, he will not say this for sure.

"Probably, there can be... There are no people around me who celebrate the Old New Year or wish each other a Happy New Year. And with the transition to the New Julian church calendar, I think that this issue will disappear altogether," he shared.

The expert explained: previously, in fact, the celebration of the Old New Year was also associated with generosity.

"Although I always said that it is not necessary to be generous on Vasyl, but on the New Year. Because gifts are for the New Year... And now everything is normal for us. And the church tradition is on Vasyl with Malanka, and the New Year is in its place," noted the archpriest of the OCU.

So, in fact, today "the Old New Year no longer fulfills any function", after all, Ukrainians are already generous according to the new style.

"But, probably, those who remain on the Julian calendar, or, so to speak, are close to the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine... I think, probably, there may still be some vestiges of the Old New Year," Kovalenko concluded.


uapress.kyiv.ua