Imagine distant pagan times. Cold, dark, there is no sun - it is guessed by a faint spot in the far corner of the sky. Day 21 December. (Nowadays, if you fly over Siberia, sometimes there are no lights below for hours. But in ancient times, imagine how dark it was ...)

A tribe wrapped in skins gathered.

With the help of the young men he came out, climbing the hill, the leader of the tribe is the oldest and most experienced, he is the high priest and astronomer, the chief shaman, and in later times - the priest-king - and addressed the people, frozen and despaired because of darkness and unbearably long nights, with something like this: “Are you in despair from the fading sun, my children? Are you tired of darkness? Are you afraid that the night will last forever? Is your patience coming to an end?

My children! I came to announce you good news. Yule came - and from now on the light will increase, the day will swell and grow, and the night will shrink and lose weight. It will get warmer and lighter. Spring is coming, carrying greens, and there the grains will be tied up in the ground, the fat cattle will multiply. Rejoice, my children, rejoice! Jump over the fires, have fun, the higher forces have not left us! ”

The leader-priest unconditionally believed in those ancient times, because his half-blind eyes, a gray beard tied in a knot, an outfit different from ordinary mortals, carried the purest sacredness, the historical mystic of the people, his fate, the tragedy of his victims and the exultation of his lives.

After paganism came Christianity. The ancient monk guys who created the customs of northern Christianity for us were skillful and clever people. They understood that you could not overlap with a whip at one time, that paganism would not die overnight, and therefore they established Christian holidays very close to pagan ones. So that the nations would first be confused, and then they would get used to the Christian rites and have no doubt. Especially they tried to please the northern peoples, because they could not believe the legend of Christ crucified in a loincloth in the hot Middle East.

My contemporaries, we all firmly know that the priests were right: the astronomical new year begins on the day of the winter solstice (December 21-22), and this was known to astronomers of the most ancient times - to the priests from those most ancient times.

On the days of the winter solstice, the sun (usually behind dense clouds) seems to hang in a cold sky. Therefore, the "solstice".

The days of the winter solstice are the shortest two-three days a year and are accompanied by the longest several nights. By this time, the psychological atmosphere in the northern peoples inevitably became heated and there were signs of despair.

The ancient monk guys, who adapted this Middle Eastern religion for us, brought the pagan Yule and the birth of their new human God, Christ, as closely as possible - and stuffed it all together in a historic bag.

Yule (the name of this ancient pagan rite sounds for the Russian ear in tune with our “fir-tree”, “fir-tree”, isn’t it so?) How the pagan holiday has survived to this day. And even partially survived the custom of celebrating Yule in the Scandinavian and Germanic countries (Yule log, the custom to have a new product made of wool - yes, even socks, even mittens - and other details). But the average man successfully tangled in the wilds of the last days of December.

He, not suspecting anything, obediently celebrates the New Year ten days later astronomical, and with this settled down, in truth, deception, humanity lives.

When you see the head of state on December 31, congratulating you with a glass in hand with the New Year, then understand that after centuries this same leader of the tribe went to reassure you. True, ten days later. But how it happened - it just happened.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.