RUSSIAN NEW YEAR

New Year Celebrations in Pagan Rus’
The tradition to celebrate the year’s beginning goes back to hoary antiquity. The ancients usually timed the New Year to the beginning of nature’s revival and so it mainly fell on March.
In Old Rus’ there was for a long time the so-called pre-summer, i.e. the first three months of the year, starting with March. It was celebrated as avsen’, ovsen’ or tusen’, which later turned into the New Year. So, the first six months of the year formed pre-summer and summer, whereas the last six months were winter time. The transition from autumn to winter remained in the background, just like the turning of spring into summer. Initially the New Year was supposedly celebrated on March 22, the day of vernal equinox. Thus, Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) and the New Year celebrations coincided: winter was driven away, thus giving way to spring and the New Year.