Indo-European beginning of the year

This is copied from B. G. Tilak’s book, “Arctic Home in Vedas”. The book is available at https://archive.org/details/TilakLokamanyaTheArcticHomeInTheVedas1903470P, in case anyone is interested in reading it.

"I should argue that the last day of the year in the Irish story of Diarmait’s death meant the eve of November of All-Halloween, the night before the Irish Samhain, and known in Welsh as Nos Galangaeaf, or the Night of the winter Calends. But there is no occasion to rest on this alone, for we have the evidence of Cormac’s Glossary that the month before the be ginning of winter was the last month, so that the first day of 365 the first month of winter was also the first day of the year. Various superstitious customs are then alluded to, showing that the eve of November was considered to be the proper time for prophecy or theappearance of goblins; and the Professor then closes the discussion regarding the above-mentioned last day of the Celtic year with theremark that “It had been fixed upon as the time of all others, when the Sun-god whose power had been gradually falling off since the great feast associated with him on the first of August, succumbed to his enemies, the powers of darkness and winter. It was their first hour of triumph after an interval of subjection, and the popular imagination pictured them stalking aboard with more than ordinary insolence and aggressiveness; and if it comes to giving individuality and form to the deformity of darkness, to describe it as a sow, black or grisly, with neither ears nor tail, is not perhaps very readily surpassed as an instance of imaginative aptitude.” 

The shows that the ancient Celtic year closed with the season of autumn and the beginning of winter which corresponded with the last day of October, or the eve of November, and was marked by festivals which indicated the victory of darkness over light. As regards the middle of the year or summer in the Celtic traditions, the same authority further informs us that “The Lammas fairs and meetings forming the Lugnassad in ancient Ireland marked the victorious close of the sun’s contest with the powers of darkness and death, when the warmth and light of that luminary’s rays, after routing the colds and blights, were fast bringing the crops to maturity. This, more mythologically expressed, was represented as the final crushing of Fomori and Fir Bolg, the death of their king and the nullifying of their malignant spells, and as the triumphant return of Lug with peace and plenty to marry the maiden Erinn and to enjoy a well-earned banquet, at which the fairy host of dead ancestors was probably not forgotten. Marriages were solemnized  on the auspicious occasion; and no prince, who failed to be present on the last day of the fair, may look forward to prosperity during the coming year. The Lugnassad was the great event of the summer half of the year, which extended form the calends of May to the calends of winter. 

The Celtic year was more thermometric than astronomical, and the Lugnassad was so to say its summer solstice, whereas the longest day was, so far as I have been able to discover, of no special account.” The great feast of the Lugnassad thus marked the middle of the year or summer, and it was held at the beginning of August. Therefore, “the First of May must, according to Celtic ideas, have been the right season for the birth of the summer sun-god”; and this is confirmed by the story of Gwin and Gwythur, who fought for the same damsel, and between whom peace was made on the condition that they were to fight for the damsel “on the Calends of May every year thenceforth till the Day of Doom, and he who should prove victorious on the Day of Doom was to take the Damsel to wife.”This is interpreted by Prof. Rhys to mean that “the Sun-god would recover his bride at the beginning of summer after his antagonist had gained possession of her at the beginning of winter;” and he compares the legend to the story of Persephone, daughter of Zeus carried away by Pluto, who was, however, able to retain her at his side only for six months in the year. We might also cite in this connection the legend of Demeter or Mother Earth, who is said to rejoice for six months in the presence of Proserpine, the green herb, her daughter, and for six months regret her absence in dark abodes beneath the earth. 
The ancient Celtic year thus seems to nave been divided into two halves, one representing the six summer months and the other, which commenced on the eve of November, the six months of winter darkness. But what is still more remarkable is that just as the RigVeda gives us the exact date of the commencement of the battle between Indra and Shambara, so Celtic myths record the exact date of the first battle of Moytura and also of the fight between Labraid of the Swift Hand on the Sword, king of an, Irish Hades, whom Cuchulainn goes to assist, and his enemies called the Men of Fidga. They were fought on the eve of November, “when the Celtic year began with the ascendancy of the powers of darkness.” Prof. Rhys further points out that the ancient Norse year was similar in character. The great feast of the Norsemen occupied three days called the Winter Nights and began on the Saturday falling on or between the 11th and the 18th of October; and according to Dr. Vigfusson this feast marked the beginning of the ancient year of the Norsemen. The old Norse year thus appears to have been shorter by a few days than the Celtic one; but Prof. Rhys accounts for this difference on the ground “that winter, and therefore the year commences earlier in Scandinavia than in the continental centre from which the Celts dispersed themselves.” 

As regards the ancient Greek calendar, Prof. Rhys has shown that the old year ended with the festival of Apaturia and the new one began with the Chalceia, an ancient feast in honor of Hephæstus and Athene, the exact date being the ènu kai nea of the month of Pyanepsion, that is, approximately the last day of October. Prof. Rhys then compares the Celtic feast of the Lugnassad with the Greek festival named Panathenæa, and the feast on the Calends of May with the Athenian Thargelia, and concludes his comparison of the Celtic and the Greek calendar by observing that “a year which was common to Celts with Greeks is not unlikely to have once been common to them with some or all other branches of the Aryan family.” This shows that the ancient Aryan races of Europe knew of six months’ day and six months’ night, and their calendars were the modifications of this Arctic division of the year.”