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SEASONS. 755
akin to ero?, perhaps to the Slavic god, godina, which in Russ.
and Serv. mean a year, while in O.S1. they stood, as the Pol.
god, Boh. hod, hodine still stand, for time in general. The
relation between ero? and eviavro? remains uncertain, for in Od.
1, 16 (ero? r}\0e Tre/HTrXo/^ez/wv eVmvrwv, a year went past with
circling seasons) tviavroi are sections of a year,
while other
accounts make an eviavrbs contain three erTj. This comp.
eVtairro? holds in it the simple eVo?, Lat. annus x
(see Suppl.).
The year was supposed to make a circle, a ring (orbis, circulus) :
jares umbi-hring, jar-hring, umbi-huurft; MHG. jfres umbe-ganc,
and recommencement of
-ring, -vart, -trit ; and the completion
this ring was from a very early period the occasion of solemn
festivities. Eligius preaches:
nullus in kal. Jan. nefanda aut
ridiculosa, vetulos aut cervulos aut joticos faciat, neque mensas
super noctem componat, neque strenas aut bibitiones superfluas
exerceat. This was apparently a Celtic and Roman custom,
( strenae ineunte anno are mentioned by Suetonius (Gal. 42. Aug.
57), and the holy mistletoe was plucked amid joyful
cries of
c
a-gui-lan-neuf ! [Michetet 2, 17 : guy-na-ne, maguillanneu,
gui-gne-leu. SUPPL.]. Nothing of the kind seems to have been
known in Germany ; but it is worth while to notice the New-
year s hymns and wishes in Clara Hatzlerin s book as late as the
14th cent. (57 b . 77 a , espec. 196201 in Haltaus s ed.) where the
year is pictured as a newborn babe, a newborn god, who will grant
the wishes of mortals. Immediately, no doubt, this referred to.
Christmas and the Saviour s birth, in places where the new year
began with that day ; yet some heathen practices seem to have
got mixed up with it too, and I cannot overlook the use in these
hymns of the bare adj. neiv, without the addition of year or
(
child (just as in naming the new-moon, p. 710, ny, niuwi) :
des dir alles der
[< giinn newgeborn ! this the Newborn grant
thee all, Hatzl. 196b . So in other new-year s wishes : wunsch/
ich dir ain vil gut jar zu disem new, Wolkenst. p. 167. gen
disem saeligen guoten new&n, Ad. Keller s Altd. ged. p. 10.
SUPPL.] .
Otherwise I hardly find the year as a whole (conf. the riddle,
p. 737) exalted into a person, except in adjurations, spells and
i For amnus, says Bopp s Gloss. Skr. 16^ ; Benfey 1, 310 explains eVtaurus by
Skr. amavat, &/?? being ama, new-moon.