Have you ever wondered where New Year comes from? Why is it now? Why is it celebrated in the dark? Why not later, when it starts to get lighter and we’ve had a little bit longer in bed? I’ve often wondered about this too but it was only yesterday that I suddenly realised where it comes from. The two winter celebrations of Christmas and New Year are ancient. Of course, as many people will know, when Christianity first forced itself onto the Britain isles (in the bloodiest conversion of any country in Europe because we resisted it so strongly), the Winter Solstice celebration was replaced by Christmas. But, what was the New Year celebration a replacement of? Or is New Year just a modern construct to get us back into harness more quickly whilst also getting us to make personal promises to enjoy ourselves less and to work even harder? I think the clue to what New Year once was, is by asking what New Year ACTUALLY is… New Year might be the time we reflect on our deeds (no bad thing of course), and the time we make personal promises (something many of us love to do) but what New Year ACTUALLY is, is the RESETTING of the CALENDAR: on New Year’s day we start the year again at 1/1. Then, when we get to 31/12, we start it again at 1/1, and so on. That’s what New Year IS. So how does this relate to us as hunter-gatherers, before we were forced to separate from Nature? Did we have a celebration to do that too? Yes. And we were extremely good at it. Because, when we were hunter-gatherers we had noticed that the two big items in the sky – the sun and the moon – are actually indicators as to where things are going to be and when. Which is a calendar. Over thousands of years we built up our knowledge that if we mark the sun’s extremes of the two Solstice points (and we know when we’ve got to them because the sun rises from the same point for 3 or 4 mornings in a row) and the two Equinox points (when day and night are equal) and then note the FIRST FULL MOON after each one, we will know exactly where everything we like to eat is going to be and WHEN it will be there. It works because the light of the sun and the light of the moon trigger animals to do certain things at certain times of the year (including us). For example, the first full moon after the Spring Equinox will trigger the wild geese to lay their eggs. It works because receptors in their eyes send the information of that light combination to the Pineal gland in their brain which decides which hormone to release into the body to trigger different biological activity. In this case, at the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, the Pineal gland triggers the release of a huge serge of eostrogen which is the hormone which makes the geese lay their eggs. Eggs, eostrogen, first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Ring any bells? That’s Easter. Easter is set as the first Sunday after the first FULL MOON after the Spring EQUINOX. And Easter is the EGG HUNT. The first full moon after the Spring Equinox tells us there will be eggs and so we go looking for them. So how does this all relate to New Year? By knowing the time lapse between the Winter Solstice and the first full moon after it we can see into the year ahead and know the time lapse between each of the sun’s extreme points and the full moons that come after them which will trigger the animals to give birth, to migrate, to rut, to mate, to drop their antlers and so on, throughout the whole year. By marking the first full moon after the Winter Solstice we can see the Natural calendar for the year ahead. So just as Christmas was once the Winter Solstice celebration, New Year was once the celebration we had on the first FULL MOON after the Winter Solstice. So, this year, when is New Year really? Next Monday. Which is 15 days after the Solstice. It means that the first full moon after the Spring Equinox will be 14 days later, which means that Spring in 2015 will be neither early nor late (early would be if the full moon was on or close to the Equinox, late would be if it was a maximum of 28 days after it). But, you know what it really means dont you? If New Year isn’t actually till next Monday, it means we’ve got four more days in bed! This is the hunter-gatherer way. If you’ve enjoyed and learned and been enlightened and would love to give something in return, there are two things I would like most of all. First, that you help SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL to continue to protect threatened tribal people by giving them a donation of whatever you can spare (even if it’s just the price of sending me a thank you card) and you can do this via their Paypal link: survivalinternational.org/donate/fundraising Second, that you begin to pay attention to what happens around you at each full moon after the Solstices and Equinoxes. We need to build up our knowledge again and it will require ALL of us to do it. Please post your observations here during the year. Thank you. Wishing each and every one of you a bountiful year of adventures and observations, delights and epiphanies in the wild and Natural world around you. With love, Ffyona
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 13:04:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015