In two different cultures there is the possibility of two beginnings of the year. One is in the spring, as has been shown above, the other is at the opposite part of the year. The Jews, as the Israelites in ancient times and the Israelis today, celebrate their Autumn festivals as the official New Year, Day of Atonement and Festival of Boots; their Spring festivals contain Passover and Shavuot, and the time around the Spring equinox is called in the Talmud New Year of Kings. It is not celebrated as such nowadays.
The other culture which officially celebrates New Year, not in springtime but at a date between Autumn equinox and Midwinter, is that of the Celts; their seasonal festivals are celebrated today by some Neo-pagans. The Celtic year is divided, as is the Middle Eastern Year, into two parts of winter and summer; but rather than having a wet winter and dry summer they describe their seasons as dark-and-cold winter and warm-and-bright summer1. Like the Jewish year, they also have a possibility of two new beginnings, at the head of each half-year. In contrast to the Mediterranean area, however, in Northern Europe, where the Celts finally settled after their wondering from the north of Italy, the sun in summer is regarded as beneficial rather than a menace. This may be the reason why most Celtic festivals are celebrated around fire, a traditional symbol of the sun, and they continually extinguished and re-light it in their celebrations.
The Celtic New Year is traditionally celebrated on November 1, in a festival called Samhain, i.e. Summer's End. CelticGrounds.com says, "As darkness overwhelmed the world, the days grew short, and the earth became barren and cold and the veil between the mortal and the supernatural was temporarily drawn aside." Perhaps no other festival is thus based on a change of mood connected with the natural situation, rather than on the physical state of Nature and Agriculture. At this time, bonfires were lit to remember the sun and encourage its return. This festival, which marks the beginning of the cold and dark winter, may have initiated the day of All Hallows, or Halloween, celebrated on the same date of the year.
On February 1st or 2nd the Celts celebrate Imbolc, which literary means "in milk". This festival centered on the Fertility goddess Brigit and was concerned with the fertility of livestock and other pastoral matters. At that time, the family spent their time round the fire at home, which was the means of light, heat and cooking.
The main Spring festival is May Day, celebrated on May 1st and called Beltane, probably after the god of light Belenus; it may have been the other New Year Day besides Samhain. At this time, all household fires were extinguished and great bonfires were kindled on hilltops, whose embers were taken and used to light the home fires, which would never be extinguished till next Beltane.
On August 11, the festival of Lughnasadh, or Lamas, was celebrated. This was done in honor of the Sun god Lugh, at the time of the decline of summer into winter. Then the warriors returned from the fields of battle to begin harvesting the crops; throughout Gaelic lands this day was known as "the festival of first fruits".
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It is significant that nowhere in the ancient world was the New Year celebrated at Midwinter, as it is today all over the Christian World. An interesting piece of history about seasonal festivals appears on InfoPlease.com. It tells about a change that had occurred in the Roman calendar:
The New Year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly elected Roman Consuls began their one-year tenure. But this New Year date was not always strictly and widely observed, and the New Year was still sometimes celebrated on March 1.
A rather problematic presentation of the festivals of Germanic/Norse peoples appears at WizardRealm.com. On the one hand, it says that the year, as has been seen in many other places around the world, was divided into two seasons, Summer and Winter, with two festivals accordingly: Eostre [probably Easter —T.B.], close to the Spring equinox, and Winternights, close to the Autumn equinox; either of these points could have been celebrated as a New Year in ancient times, as it was done by other cultures. On the other hand, a mention is made of a Midwinter festival as a New Year day, called Jul:
the most important of all the Norse holidays. On the night of December 20, the god Ingvi Freyr rides over the earth on the back of his shining boar, bringing Light and Love back into the World... Jul signifies the beginning and end of all things; the darkest time during the year and the brightest hope re-entering the world.
It is obvious that the sun's appearance and disappearance is much more important closer to the North Pole than it is further south toward the equator, and that it is more important than the existence of rains. Still, ordinary observation could not mark the point of change of season at Midwinter, as it would of the change between winter and spring. To quote the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's on the North Pole: "Winter — The darkest time of year at the North Pole is the Winter Solstice, approximately December 21. There has been no sunlight or even twilight since early October. The darkness lasts until the beginning of dawn in early March."
It is possible that the celebration of the New Year was transferred in Scandinavia, as it was in Rome, from Spring to Midwinter, with the astronomical realization of what was happening to the relation of the earth to the sun at that point; but there is no indication of it in that site, or of its dating if it had happened, as there is in the Roman site. However, it is obvious that in most places around the world, the most important Christian festival celebrated today was unknown in ancient days.
Note:
1 See http://www.celticgrounds.com/chapters/c-festivals.htm and http://www.sacredfire.net/festivals.html.
Additional Reading:
Calendars Throughout the Ages
The Greek Calendar
Bede's Anglo-Saxton Calendar
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