Medieval New Year

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the medieval world, January 1 wasn’t actually New Year’s Day (that was March 25), but the anniversary of Jesus’s circumcision (according to the church). In fact, unlike many Christmas traditions, there’s very little in the way of New Years traditions we still do today that have medieval origins. Nevertheless, this was still a time of feasts, parties, and the medieval equivalent of the Black Friday sales (think less angry queues and more nobility buying themselves fancy swords and jewel encrusted model ships). In this special episode, Matt Lewis explains what medieval society got up to around this time of year, and why medieval new year was actually March 25.

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Music:

Able - Joseph S Greenier, David John Vanacore

Walk Tall - Johannes Bornlof

Dreams of Tomorrow - Daniel James Nolan

Godsend - Johannes Bornlof

Galivant - Bradley Andrew Segal, Bong H. Jung, Chang Wooi Kang

Reverse - Matthew Burnette Heath, Noel Arthur Goff, Kristen Lee Agee

We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Kevin MacLeod / unknown (english christmas carol), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Worst - Brian Scott Carr, Kristen Lee Agee

Vad Rost, Vad Ljuvlig Rost Jag Hor - Kurt Lyndon

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever wondered why one of Ruan Cathedral's towers is called the Tower of Butter, or what
0:06.2	animals have faced trials in courts for, or even how the black country got its name?
0:12.4	Well, you can find the answers to questions like these and hundreds more in our new book,
0:18.4	The History Hit Misscellany. It's the perfect present for any history fan.
0:23.3	It's available to buy now from your favourite bookshop or by visiting historyhit.com forward slash
0:29.9	book. Welcome to this episode and a brand new year of Gone Medieval.
0:39.2	I'm Matt Lewis. I hope you've enjoyed a wonderful Christmas as we spoke about last time
0:44.1	in the Christmas episode. So much of what we associate closely with Christmas today comes from
0:49.6	medieval traditions. The name of the season, the reason it falls where it does in the calendar,
0:55.2	the idea of a huge set piece meal of Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, singing,
1:01.0	playing games, whether we knew it or not, we've all gone medieval at Christmas if we've ever
1:05.9	celebrated it. So what about new year? Can we say the same for the first of January,
1:11.5	as we can for the 25th of December? Well, given my mission to prove that everything is medieval
1:17.7	really, you better believe I'm going to try. The glaring issue to deal with, first of all,
1:23.7	is the date. Various dates around the world are used to celebrate new year.
1:29.7	The first of January was the beginning of a new year under the Julian calendar introduced by
1:35.6	Julius Caesar in 46 BCE. The Roman empires annual cycle used the date for a moment known as
1:45.8	Callens, a term that continues in use throughout the medieval period. The Callens was a name for the
1:52.4	first day of each month and the Callens of January marked the beginning of a new political as well
1:58.8	as calendar year. The empires officials would take up their new offices from this date to serve
2:05.3	throughout the year, so it really was about new beginnings. January is named for Janus,
2:12.4	the Roman god of beginnings, doorways, duality and various other things. Janus had two faces,
	...

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