Celebrating the New Year in Byzantium

Introduction. Many cultures consider the first day of the new year a holiday which supposes the performance of specific rituals and rites. The traditions of New Year celebrations reflect the nature of this or that civilization, its historical experience, and religious and world-viewing constants. The said is to the full extent actual for the Byzantine civilization. The purpose of the work is to reconstruct the general scenario of official celebrations, to trace its evolution, and to analyse the folk tradition related to it. Methods and materials. The main sources of the given research are liturgical books, treatises on ceremonies, and epistolography. Analysis. In Byzantium, the New Year was celebrated on September 1 at different levels: church, state, and public. Despite its origin from the laity, the Byzantines viewed this holiday primarily as religious as it opened both the new year cycle and the church calendar. By the tenth century, there developed the order of service (akolouthia) for the first day of the new year. The patriarch served special liturgies in St Sophia’s Church and performed a crucession. The emperor was not allowed to participate in the church rituals. In Late Byzantium, the climax of the New Year ritual was the public prayer made in the imperial capital, in the Forum of Constantine, in the presence of the emperor. The ceremonial protocol documented that the ruler must participate in the New Year service. The ordinary people of Byzantium widely celebrated this holiday, spending this day in going to church, paying visits, and exchanging greetings.