Myths of the New Year. From Saturnalia and Yule to Krampus and Snegurochka

The book immerses readers in the sacred world of the New Year. It explores the origins of New Year traditions, their mythological roots, and symbolic meanings. It offers an opportunity to see familiar customs as part of a centuries-old cultural heritage.

The chime of the clock, the lights of the New Year tree, a kind wizard with gifts – it seems like this has always been the case. However, these traditions developed over thousands of years and took the most unexpected forms in different cultures, from the Babylonian battle of Marduk with primordial Tiamat to the Slavic farewell to Yarilo and the Japanese ritual of driving out demons with handfuls of beans.

The starting point of the New Year in the life cycle could be the river floods, the beginning of fieldwork, the solstice, or the equinox. But all these celebrations were united by one idea that the world must momentarily return to its original chaos in order to be born anew.

This book traces the origins of familiar New Year symbols and shows how ancient myths, rituals, and calendrical ceremonies of different peoples have formed a single cultural code that still defines our understanding of the beginning of the New Year today.